the mayor came to us with a very precise question which was how can all of this data and technology help us to change and make the city more sustainable. if the go to copenhagen, traffic in the city looks like this. you had a lot of cars in the city center. now they have 30% or 50% every day. you have this bicycle idea. i do not know if we can put the audio. this will give your energy. despite changing the will you will save the energy. we can monitor what you are doing.

they can collect information. all of these things you can share with your friends. you can put it on facebook. it is a very good way to increase the number of sites in copenhagen. instead collecting air miles, you collect green miles. this was the initial prototype.

now we have these in cars. we are getting very close to its. hopefully, it will be here next year. >> come up on the stage. this is the vice president and director of the metropolitan policy program at the brookings institution. he will be joined by a bunch of other panelists for how far can innovations take our cities. >> thanks. while they get ready, i wanted to thank the sponsors here and think what you have done. you have taken a very broad view of technology and innovation.

he said right at the beginning. it is not just about the next. it is about connecting the dots between technology and manufacturing. technology and innovation is drive cities. it takes cities to drive the national economies. it took a long time for us remember that. we are joined by an adjunct professor at wayne state. most importantly, he works for city governments. gordon feller, michael littlejohn and you have heard from carlo. it is very hard to moderate. all i want to do is tweet. i wanted to start with a question that really builds off

of carlo's presentation. this can be a very broad conversation. we are talking about efficiency and how we manage congestion and lower energies. we are talking about the integration of data. we are talking about participation was social media, co-production of solution. david mentioned this. the united states is not quite at the vanguard of this. when i think it can just in, i think about singapore. he brought the copenhagen. i want to start with the ibm and cisco part part of the world. where do you see progress within cities? where in the u.s.?

>> we can point to smarter transportation and public safety and health care. that is not necessarily a smarter city. a smarter city, and it was alluded to a number of times this morning, is a city of the complex group of systems. how do you take advantage of the integration of those systems. this is where we are lacking. take a building. you can have a building and you can implement the best building information management system that exists in the world. then you can implement the best physical security system in the world.

you be doing pretty well. there is an opportunity there to even better your operation by integrating the two. think of the additional insight you could game and have you could run and manage the building more effectively. the same principle holds true for a city. why are we lagging other countries? sometimes we cannot get out of our own way. it is the way we are organized. it is the way we make decisions that it's in our way. >> do you agree with that assessment? are their pockets for the u.s. takes law enforcement? >> there are exceptions. there are still exceptions. one reason let me now have

concluded as the frame that is being used by policymakers, the frame is not about investing. it is about capital expenditures when should be about operating expenditures. the frame is about government as believed. we're trying to work with our customers in those cities where we see receptive ears a meeting the leaders are hungry for really profound changes in the way the city operates. some of these are not the usual suspects. chattanooga, not the city on because you would expect on the left bank or otherwise. they decided to make the investment in building out broadband to every building in the city.

piercing the economic benefits. it is not just the city government. it was their other vehicles. they were being smart. connecting the dots are hard. we're trying to break down the silo which tends to be the frame for which they think about it rather than looking across all of the boundaries to say what is it that is going to force collaboration and open the system to open engagement. some of the leaders have really done things that are pretty smart of things that harness not just the wireless networks but harnessing the public engagements. >> i wanted you to focus on this, giving presentation. we're talking about networks. cities do not particularly

function at networks in part because government tends to be very compartmentalized. buildings are getting wired. do you see at the u.s. at the city scale as the aspects of technological innovation? are there some real opportunities given what we are seeing in some of the other global areas? >> you have to do cities. they are made of bricks and steel and concrete. how to combine all of this is something that we know how to do. it is more and more needed. this brings together different parts of city government.

another issue is about integrating data. there are two ways to do it. one way is to do it at the top and promote integration at the top. this will work to such an extent. i feel the other way is what we have seen more and more of.

they are really using this as integrators. this is becoming the integrator for this intelligence. >> as we have come back, i want to go to detroit for a bit. this is for the entire day. where are those pockets of opportunity, particularly in the united states? the one thing about our system is that city x does something within two or five years and you see it spread through the system. and that regard we are highly entrepreneurial at the city scale with innovating and replicating innovation. i want to keep coming back to what are those pockets.

>> we are in a great city. we are in a great metropolis. in many respects it is the tale of two cities. complicated fiscal situations. depopulation over a long time. decentralization. if you take it up to midtown, all the is a sense of momentum. as you think about this question of the smart city, the integration of systems and data, what are the possibilities as detroit wrestles with some very hard fiscal and economic challenges? what are the barriers? that can potentially be removed. >> first of all, thank you so much for asking. i have lived in detroit my

entire life, 40 plus years. i've worked for the city of detroit over 20 years. there is definitely a focus on the condition of the cities in america as well. what your overwhelmingly struck by is that there are so many breakdowns both with and city government and with in the region. the st. separate financial and government structures. this looks better than i have ever seen it. the benefits of that are not integrated into the old neighborhood questions. within the city limits you have

a tremendous overlap and overlay of governmental jurisdictions, a separate fund-raising abilities. within the region, as we try to address some of the environmental challenges, how do you bring all of these different entities under one page? i worry about the capacity for planning, the capacity to make use of a lot of these amazing innovations. that capacity is brought to make the reaching competitive in the development since. that capacity is with in city government to make sure our inspectors even know what green roof is.

how do you keep people's skill sets up to date if you do not have the ability or mechanisms for reinvesting? it has so many layers to the problem. we are in such a weakened position that it has forced us to open ourselves to any method, of the it outsourcing or complete privatization. >> what is the advice for detroit? overlap, overlay? there is no unified government. there is the capacity issue with an government. they are thinking how do i get a job within the city? the city will not be able to harness the talent that is there that would give the city to the next place.

how are we going to bring them into the process sitting where they are in universities and the private sector that are dynamic and interested in the city of the future? the city has to collaborate, at a harness that talent pool and give them the resources where is necessary.

the city has the legitimization to say you are now the agent of change. it used to be the department of x and now it is another. this is hard to have. this might be years away. these are the years between now and when the city is strong enough to do it. this is part of the reinvention process, a figure out which types of public/private partnerships are possible. we have seen really interesting ways of inventing the process of partnering that do not involve giving away public assets and public goods. >> the other thing, some structural changes will to the main to how government

functions. right now there are very few cities that have any type of an institute that is tasked with looking out across. the way agencies are set at now, they do not foster innovation. you can go to any agency in any city in this country and their project plan has been set up for the next three-five years. it does not foster innovation. having created one that has empowered to find innovation and drive innovation across these agencies that has a budget is one of the steps to get there. >> if you created the office of innovation to get the process. >> this seems to me that it could work.

i am not sure if they will have the top-down solutions. there is something else. today there are a few ones to berlin. this is one of the magnet for people in europe. first of all, it has been cheaper in other places. the city became like an open platform. in some sense in this exciting. it is allowing people in.

people are using this for different experiments. a lot of people would be excited to come here and develop new services. it is very exciting. you can do it but then a requires a lot of investment. >> berlin is poor but sexy. if detroit wants to use that, if they can borrow it. >> i am spent most of this time in berlin at the guggenheim.

they are getting richer richer in the sense of the economic activity. but it is really booming. >> these are not competing visions. the are complementary. the state has a very strong role. they began to decompartmentalize this notion of what taken issue on energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, which is very much of the building. thus began to move out the building space. are these competing visions or complementary?

we can begin to move some of the co-produced solutions quicker. >> co-production in this case will be possible when and if some things happen. some key institutions have to get together and say that we want transparency around energy consumption. what will it take to have it-or we can access on our smartphone or schoolrooms that will tell them which of these schools are cleaner and greener and smarter than others? something that would require collaboration that would open the utility to share the data, a lot of cities are now doing this to really change the game. now i have access to knowledge that will then tell me which school is least efficient.

i'm going to focus on why that is inefficient. is it not weatherized? are the kids going to be the drivers because they will convince their parents that kids and parents will get the school room cleaner and greener? one key ingredient will be the collaboration that makes data possible. >> you talk to understanding what the problem is. i just finished up a piece of work for a regional economic develop initiative. they are trying to recover in bring businesses and individuals back to the region. they want their an exhaustive process of really soul-searching to try to come up what are the top three barriers to migration to that region? one was the transportation networks. how can we apply smarter transportation principles?

the setup was access to water. huckabee borrow and what the water authorities and others are using? this is focused on what are the problems. let's attack those problems and take our breath and move on to the others. >> folks have questions. the microphones are here. think about the city as a network of players, some very large.

they can take their own responsibility. they can take the lead in partnership with the government around certain set of issues. the point about what is the right issue to tackle, and the southeast there is no water. last time i checked you have lots of water. there is any number of issues, whether it is around energy or education. this strikes me as a way to get around the challenge of government is dysfunctional and compartmentalize. you have a lot here. it seems like this might be part of the solution. >> before i comment about that, i want to be sure that we do not forget those have been unemployed so long they are out of the workforce.

real question will skill readiness. i do not want to forget them in the equation. it is music my ears to hear the definition of the problem and information. it is music to my ears to hear that. we have a piecemeal approach of a couple of initiatives. they're really attract well to analyze and a city that is depopulating. you're trying to talk about redefining wealth. i think of the outbidding the police cars with the cameras, everybody has done that i think. both of those were seeded with grant money.

when the grant ran out, we have not been able to keep up. there needs to be that money, whether it be federal or state. there needs to be this institutional approach that redefines. we have been praised cameras and police cars. we find a way even the technology at about 70% to the base price of the vehicle. they have the gps and whatever the technology is.

we have to keep that for so many reasons. it does lead to back to that institutional capacity to plan and redefine good services and to find them. >> i would like to ask the question of carlo. what do you think keywords will do for the industry? >> what? >> keywords. >> e mean it through the city? >> for different industries and what people respond to. some people respond to google and other people respond better to craigslist. >> you are saying keywords. >> sort of the search. how to search the key words. >> yes.

>> how to search the city? >> yes. with key words. you understand what i'm saying? i understand key words. >> a lot people respond to certain words, right? ok, keywords is words that a lot of people respond to, and in some people do not respond to. >> i understand, but you mean in terms of adding labels in the city? in which sense? >> organizing concepts and also as [indiscernible]

>> i'm not sure and the best person to answer this in terms of i'm not too familiar with detroit. you mean about key words in the city? >> in detroit, there are certain key words people respond to. it is kind of universal in a way or what language you speak, like keywords that an american would speak with and respond to a person that lives in singapore, more or less. where i live, more people respond to craig's list, say, then google or ebit or something like that because it is more attached to their economy. getting something for less. you know what i'm saying? >> i agree with you. to be honest, i'm not the best person to comment on the impact of this and how this could set in. >> i think you are also raising a broader issue, particularly with regard to the application and deployment of technology in different cities that have very different starting points, right?

in terms of race, ethnicity, employment. so this conversation, which we sort of engaged on about efficiency, allocation -- you know, it is hard to translate it times. the interface of individuals to the tech and innovative economy is radically different in different parts of the country. i think that is an interesting question, particularly as it goes forward in a city like this, and there's a whole range of cities that have depopulated radically into the united states, you know, and have large unemployment. it changes, i think, the nature of the deployment or the nature of the exercise. >> i asked carlos because i thought he was more of a technical person. >> i may be the least technical person, though i do twi like a maniac. next question. >> does so a venture for america fellow in the city of detroit, and also at next energy

center, and i have a question for all of you -- one of the things that i've heard talked a lot about here is that this technology, the software, the data collection is a means to an end, and one of the things that i've noticed within the under pressure community in the united states and the conversations surrounding it is that the end is some type of, like, social media application or some type of app. i wanted to ask you all what you thought about connecting the two because i think there's enormous power in social media as a means to an end, but the conversation is too often as an end in itself. how do you think we can bring the two together? what applications or how can we get that conversation started? in my field, energy and renewable energy -- that type of leveraging knowledge technology

or information technology could be incredibly powerful, but i think there is a divide between the two cultures. >> absolutely. great question. thoughts? comments? >> we talked to a lot of mayors who want to create networks of allies for the projects that the cities are undertaking. partly because they want to have access to all that knowledge and resources that that social network can help the city tap, and that is an understandable thing the mayor wants to do, but it is very opportunistic, a

little bit mercenary. "i want to build a social network in order to accomplish my goals." we have to explain very carefully to the city leaders that often the people in the social network have different ideas about how to go about the process of changing schools or improving buildings or making mobility and transit more efficient and more affordable in the city. often, you get results from the social network that you were not necessarily expecting when you ask them to participate in the conversation. some city leaders that we talked to who have been through this process actually realized that it probably was worth it, even though it was painful because they came under withering attack for assuming that when the study social conversation that that will result in a policy that you started your assumptions with -- that when they start the social conversation, that will result in a policy you started with the assumptions with. do not so with the ideas that your ideas will be the best ideas or that they will be acceptable. that is a humbling experience for city leaders, to realize that the social network the city is engaged in is actually not going to deliver what they

expected at the outset but may be something a lot better. >> i also think there is, to the gentleman's question, there is a growing opportunity to engage the general public in solving some of these problems. if you go back to the example i used about the southeastern region where water conservation was one of the bigger barriers to economic development, there are some things that the city and the region needs to do, but there are also things identified where if we were to distribute the data to the general public on water use, that would spawn behavior, so there's an opportunity there for social media, smart apps, to engage developers, to engage developers to help engage the general public in this big data umbrella around water conservation. >> i think that is critical. it gets back to your other point about trying to set priorities, and the people where they are. people in the southeast understand water shortage. this is a huge issue, and it sweeps across a good portion of the sun belt. the crisis in regions like this

one is the talent mismatch. the question that goes back to the earlier panel -- how do you diversify this economy? build off of this powerful production base and set a trajectory going forward? i think that is really the fundamental issue in most parts of the midwest, just given the last 30 or 40 years of industrial restructuring, so it gets to this question, this really powerful fusion of setting some goals, setting priorities, and then figuring out how technology is one of the vehicles for achieving that, right? which is really the power of all of it. an engaging the citizenry. absolutely. crowdsourcing. these are different cultures now. really different cultures we're talking about, but they are pulled together, which requires leadership across a broad network, and then you do have a

2 +2 =5 kind of concept. >> most leaders do not understand this is the connector between citizen and city, and there has to be an intelligent way of engaging around the supercomputer we are carrying around in our pocket that is a social media device. it is a tool for transparency. i would like to know how efficient my municipal buildings are since i am taxpayer. those kinds of things do not connected yet. >> question over here. >> i am representing the school of business administration to wayne state. taking a to back a little bit to seed money. we mentioned the fed in the state and grant money. asking the state i feel right now is kind of a long shot. i was kind of curious -- where can we channel some new funds? also, if anyone could shed a little light on the benefits of foreign investment as well. >> it is a great question. we are going to see the federal government scaled back in this country.

not a question of weather, but how much and where. the state has got issues. how we think creatively about public/private financing vehicles. >> detroit has had a tremendous commitment from its foundations in the last couple of years, and that includes funding and massive planning effort, meant to address the geographic changes, patterns of the population in the city. the thing about grant funding is not about the puppet on the string. once the funding stream runs out because it is again meant to be seed money, you still have to figure out what is it that makes us to what we do better? i guess i do not want to focus too much on the grant funding. i want it to be part of our operating.

>> particularly at the end of the day when you do this right. you lower energy costs radically. not just for energy, but for cities. as a whole bunch of tangible metrics you can use to help seed private finance. >> responding to the previous question and to this, but we can look at this in two ways. one is kind of tone down. it think about that, then, of course, yes, indeed quite a lot of government investment to do this from the top down. but the other option is going to be how we see the city in a bottom-up platform? this kind of computing power. each of us now has in our pocket. how can we leverage this in order to promote new behavior, no action?

if you do this, you do not need that much money from the government. in the case, you just need to be, like, a catalyst, and then things will happen. may be small grants from foundations can be much bigger. >> i want to apologize to the other folks who want to ask questions because we have 44 seconds and counting down. i think this has been a very interesting panel to sort of break out of the traditional -- the government needs to do this. top down. we need a variety of interventions and the bubbling of energy in this city in the midtown, in the downtown, but detroit can be -- it can be a petrie dish for a lot of different kinds of innovations if we think about it that way. i think that as part of the challenge. how do we send that signal that at this point in time in the

city in this metropolis in this state, it is time to innovate and experiment? thank you very much. >> great job. thanks so much. [applause] >> you are a good moderator, bruce. that was a great panel. thank you to all of you. when we describe this conference, the first thing that always say is about u.s. competitiveness. it ties back to that. the next session, please come out panelists and moderators. a very good friend of mine, a fellow at the -- we organize this panel in conjunction with the council on foreign relations, and it is all about u.s. competitiveness. let's get it under way. all right, jim. take it away. >> great to be here in detroit. first time in a while. have to make it happen more often.

we are going to have a nice conversation. we have to cover a lot of things in 40 minutes, so we will start right away. you can look in the program and see the panelists and see their backgrounds. great panel. in the 40 minutes that we're going to try to cover, looking and infrastructure, education and immigration, trying to look at it through the lens of technology and the role of urban centers and take a look at what the current state is in the united states in each of these things, what some of our best practice competitors are doing, and may be a couple of suggestions on tactical things they can do to do a better job. it is a lot to cover in 40 minutes, and we will try to take some calls at the end if we

can. without further ado, i want to ask vivek to start. you got to see lots of things. you had a great perspective on these three areas of the united states -- immigration, education, infrastructure. good to pick one and comment on the current state of united states in terms of being competitive in the world? >> when you look at the story of america, it is a story of entrepreneurs and, the ability to disrupt not just at the local level, but the global economy. unfortunately, what you're hearing is too much of the gloom and doom in terms of where america is when it comes to competitiveness. my view is that it is still the best country on the planet when it comes to starting up a business, advancing an idea you have or access to talent. the challenge we have before us because we are the architect of our own destiny, that there are key issues we need to confront. if you look at the next 30 years, if you do not address them, i do not think we can remain the most competitive country in the world. first, i think it comes down to

immigration. it is broken. it makes absolutely no sense when we educate some of the smartest people in the world with advanced degrees and then ask them to leave the country and go start up companies elsewhere. why are we not stapling right to their graduate application a visa or a green card? second, when it comes to education, the challenge we have domestically is that that system is also broken as we look for the next 30 years. in detroit, for example, there were 3400 and the tech job openings in the detroit metro region. the challenge is that we have not done enough in terms of retooling the work force, in terms of transitioning from one career path to the other. i know that there are some interesting programs under way that need to be scaled. for example, the wayne community college has a program where they brought in instructors from

around the world. they trained people to actually move into the i.t. career track, and at the same time, this was done in about 16 weeks, and 73 people graduated from this program, and 27 of them have jobs as a result of that. when need to figure out from an education perspective how we become better at retooling the work force we already have domestically as we try to make sure we remain competitive globally when it comes to our immigration policy. >> it is a big challenge. you have to have a core group of engineering and manufacturing unions domestically as well as overseas. how you make that balance? what makes the united states and better place for you to locate things compared to outside of it? >> i really want to build off of vivek's comments. possibly a different perspective. it starts with a huge customer base here in the u.s., focus on really creating products the

customers want, products to customers value, high-quality products that are safe, green, and smart, clearly, that runs around the world. as you mentioned, we have to maintain a global footprint in terms of our manufacturing and education. but in terms of a commitment to the u.s. and some of the things that are really happening here, -- we recently announced, for example, over the next four years, $16 billion of investment in engineering and manufacturing in the u.s. will announce the creation of 12,000 new jobs in manufacturing and engineering in the u.s. justice we, we announced another 1200 jobs at our flat rock assembly plant here in michigan where we will be producing the

new fusion vehicle. a year or so back, we completely retooled our michigan assembly plant, and now, we are producing a whole range of vehicles. so there is a huge amount of good news, and it really comes down to working with all the key stakeholders to ensure that we've got world-class quality, world-class productivity, that we leverage all the local knowledge around with the customers here in the u.s. want, and really striving to make the u.s. not only a competitive place from a manufacturing and exports sense, but also from the sense of engineering great products. one other point that i would

like to mention -- the point around immigration, education, and so on. we as an industry are in a little bit of a crisis in terms of confusing critical skills and to the auto industry, particularly around controlled engineers, software engineers, and just in general, the stem disciplines. we are doing a tremendous amount to promote education, to promote the technical disciplines, to bring the best engineers to our company, and to give them a career that can last many years, can last a lifetime. i did just want to share with the audience some of the things that are already going well. >> michael, you have literally written a book on finance and engineering education, both in the past, and you are writing a book on it now. may be you could talk about what is going on -- what is the

current state of science education in the united states? may be some of your view of what we could be doing better -- may be some of your view of what we could be doing better. >> the u.s. is a prominent science and engineering producer in the world. you will get all kinds of dissonance in the numbers i feel quantitatively because of their large engineering graduation rates in some very large countries come up to believe china, but there's a lot of dispute about what those numbers actually mean. in terms of quality, the science and engineering fields in the u.s. at the university level are the highest, though others are catching up, as others have said, because u.s. was the only man left standing or only person left standing at the end of world war ii, and it had the free field for two or three decades. as far as k-12 concerned, things are quite different. you have a huge disparity in the quality, even within 50 miles or so. i think of where we're sitting

today. you would probably find outstanding quality, science and math education, and terrible quality. that is a microcosm of the u.s. as a whole, which has huge inequalities in its k-12 education system, so it is average performance on all of the indicators is medium among other countries, or some would say mediocre if they want to be critical. the top tier does extremely well, the top quartile of graduates does very well by international comparisons. the bottom quartile us terribly -- does terribly. the median is somewhere in the middle. if you are worried about the science and engineering work force questions, all -- almost all of those people come from the top quartile, and the k-will system with all of its problems -- and there are a lot of them -- is producing plenty of people with very high caliber, who if they can be attracted to go into

science and engineering will do extremely well, but we are leaving behind the bottom quartile, who are doing very badly, and that is an equity issue, a workforce issue of a non-science and technology sort. you want people to be literate and numerate in all occupations these days, so that is a quick overview. >> for those of you, cfr.org. there's a great program called renewing america, definitely one of the best places you will find information on this topic as it gets updated. may be you can comment on what you think the most important issues are and what we should be thinking about. >> i guess i will be thinking slightly gloomier than we started. there are two stories going on in the u.s. economy. one is of innovation, entrepreneurship, start-ups -- the u.s. is on parallel then continues to be that way, but if you look in terms of spreading economic benefits

broadly throughout the economy, we've not done terribly well in the last 30 years. a reasonable definition of a competitive economy is one that is creating a lot of high-wage work for its people so that their standards of living continue to rise. on that standard, we've not actually done tremendously well over the last several decades. a typical example, i did take the archetypal industries. you go back to the 1950's and 1960's when detroit was in the tape. the automotive industry employed millions of people directly and in its spin-off. you take the showpiece industry of our current era -- it is consumer electronics, aerospace phones, television -- the supply chain for that is a lot of -- is in asia. a lot of value added, a lot of smart people doing important things, but a lot of the work not expanding in the united states. consumer electronics is not the enormous a ploy that the auto industry is.

we are not seeing the same thing on the technology side, so i think a lot of the challenge, if we are in fact moving into another era of tremendously disruptive change, as they begin at the outset and i think is undoubtedly correct -- if we as a country have to be thinking strategically about how we do better for more of our people in this next era of disruptive change then we did in the last one. relatively speaking, we have not done well for a broad swath of our people for several decades now, and you can see the results in a city like detroit here. >> when you look at that view, you have got to think about the global population. there's 7 billion people in the world. there are only 310 million people in the united states. therefore, the only way we will be able to compete in the global economy is to create a disruption of broad sectors of our economy. when you think about 310 million people competing against

the rest of the world, what becomes really interesting here is that talent and capital is going to flow where it is most welcome. from a public policy perspective, we need to make sure we are advancing an agenda that welcomes both the talent and capital and companies that have been created in the united states, weather to go back and look at the auto industry, weather you look at what is happening with the semiconductor industry, what happened to intel when it came to manufacturing memory cards and shifting to chips -- we need to be able to think about the broader economy in that context. i think the big problem at the base of this pyramid is fundamentally education, right? across the country, there are 3.6 million job openings today

-- 3.6 million. we just are not able to find the talented workforce to be able to fulfil those jobs. >> one of the things -- what are the things that are uniquely great about the american system that work for you and what are the things that are not so great that you would like to see fixed? >> good question. some of the numbers you just threw out are some of the numbers i have spent a lot of time thinking about. that are only 300 million people in the u.s., but it still a lot of people. the numbers are big and absolute sums, and may be small in percentages, but what is absolutely compelling for us is that huge installed customer base for the number of vehicles in service.

the fact that we expect for the foreseeable future to have a very strong automotive market here. it really comes down to -- you know, you asked about what is uniquely u.s., and you could say the same thing for many other regions or many other countries around the world, but what i think is unique here is clearly an understanding of an environment -- if you come back to - 0, about focusing on the customer and producing products that our customers really want and value, it is an understanding in a sense of the economics, distribution, vehicles, the supply base. i talk about the 12,000 jobs at ford, the jobs in the supply base and related engineering activities. i really just keep coming back to the market itself, the opportunity to put great

vehicles out there, to focus on the things people really want, and to talk back to the high- tech jobs. historically, our industry, particularly the domestic manufacturers in the detroit area -- for now, competitors of rust belt. we made a commitment to engineer the highest quality vehicles that offer the best fuel economy in every sector the we compete in every market around the world. if you come back to some of the investments i mentioned earlier, a very large percentage of those investments have been in very high-technology power trends, weather they are hybrid vehicles, battery, electronic vehicles.

we now have six electrified the nichols we will be selling in the u.s. most of that engineering is done right here in michigan at our engineering center in dearborn along with the supply base, and a lot of the component manufacturing is coming into this area as well. it really comes down to this commitment to focus on the customer, the very best of engineering. you need the market knowledge and you need the engineers. it ties back around to your point about education and a technical discipline.

>> who, if anybody, is getting it right? >> i don't think there is any model out there -- >> how about pieces of a model. >> so who, if anybody, is getting it right, that we can learn from? >> i do not think there is any model out there. well, there are some pieces of the model. in some countries, in many countries, actually, the government can really determine what percentage of the university cohort is going to major or specialize by field. if you see the numbers coming out of china, the numbers of scientists and engineers being graduated each year, it is a very high number. 40% + of those graduating are in engineering. 33% of every graduating cohort are in engineering. that is not because one-third of them are saying i am going to be an engineer and i want to go

that way. it is partly because of government policy is mandating or incentivizing high percentages going into engineering and it has to do with the chinese government being dominated by engineers in the government circles. you have to look at -- that cannot be done in the u.s., of course, i know. you cannot say to stanford or the university of michigan, you will graduate 33% of your bachelor's degrees in engineering next year. you have to make it attractive. >> could we incentivizes? >> yes, you could, and we have not done very well on that. one of the problems, i think, has been the really smart kids,

highly skilled, sophisticated, talented kids are sort of voting with their feet away from engineering careers because they see what has happened to the auto industry in the u.s. may be their parents worked in the auto industry and it was a very successful industry until -- unfortunately, what their parents are telling them, often, is do not do what i did, because it worked well for my generation, but look at what happened to the generation after me. they got laid off. this eruption of industries, of cyclical sword that go up and down, up and down with big amplitude, is not a healthy way to operate an industrial and educational system. the signals go back to the high school kids when there is a break in the industry like the

auto industry saying, maybe you thought you wanted to be an auto engineer or systems designer, but look what happened. you should go into finance. that is where you should be going now. unfortunately, i do not know what the story is in michigan, but in many engineering schools, a significant number of the kids who are majoring in engineering do not want to be engineers. they want to go into finance. >> they want to engineer finances. >> they see an engineering degree as an entry into finance and that is not healthy. >> let me take the challenge to look at a couple of concrete things being done. we have the greatest free enterprise country in the world, and it is completely socialized. it requires government funding, borrowing at the highest level.

go to europe, and you see public-private partnerships. we need a national infrastructure bank. a small amount of money, a seed money from the government, the brings in private money sitting on the sidelines that is looking for investment in things that pay long returns. toll roads is a classic example. you do see things happening at a state and local level. new york is trying to do at the state level what is not being done at the federal level. chicago, rahm emanuel and the next -- in the last six months announce an infrastructure project to bring in private money sitting on the sidelines. that is a very good example of what is being done. the u.s. is losing ground in infrastructure.

the governments do not have an awful lot of money now, so if you are waiting and relying on government appropriations and government borrowing for infrastructure investment, that is not the best way forward in the current environment. a couple other things of low hanging few -- low hanging fruit. if you go around the world, every major country has a national effort to attract foreign investment. our share of foreign investment has plummeted. we of not lost it all to china. but we have lost a lot of ground. the u.s. is last in terms of the effectiveness of our promotion efforts. we have to get out there and sell ourselves to the world. the assumption for years has been that of course people will come here. it is a big market. that does not necessarily play anymore.

we have to go out and sell ourselves to the world's businesses. 60% + of our exporting is still done by multinational companies. we need to get that done by smaller and medium-sized companies. we do not offer any assistance to american companies in that. there are a lot of things we can do to sell ourselves to the world as an attractive destination to invest and exports from the we're not doing. >> back to immigration for a moment and then we can go back to infrastructure if you would like. are there countries out there who can emulate during gauge meant policy or steel aspects from it?

-- emily their engagement policy or steel aspects from it -- emulate their engagement policy or steal aspects from a? >> there is not a perfect model. look at some of the work that is happening in india, for example, to try to attract foreign investment and entrepreneurs. i'm not sure -- it is still very early in terms of the results of their. for the last three decades, the u.s. has had, historically, a very healthy immigration policy, but in the last decade or so we have kind of gone the other way. when you think about it, the number of immigrants that have come in and built amazing companies and created jobs in

the hundreds of thousands, we cannot be looking at other markets because there is not a perfect model, but we need to look back of the 1970's in the u.s. as an historical model. we have a lot of immigration. a lot of people came in with science, technology, engineering, mathematics backgrounds. if you look at silicon valley, you see the results. >> i spent seven years of my life painfully on the commission of immigration reform which was chaired by barbara jordan and 1990's. i think the way to describe the american immigration system is, it is enormous. it represents something like one-third of the world's total immigration into one country with 7% of the world's population. it is enormous but terribly unbalanced. it is dominated by family ties and skills based immigration is

an afterthought in the current system. that is the problem you're referring to. it is also off balance as an expedient. we have a dominance now in the skills based side and a dominance of temporary migration over permanent migration. that is not healthy, and that is why we get these kind of peculiar outcomes that he was talking about. the system is enormous. needs reform. it is not that we need more immigration. it is that we need to have a better balance within the immigration system. as far as who does better, i never thought i would say this, i must say. i spent many years living in britain and they had a hopeless immigration system, i thought, very badly administered, very

badly thought through. they now probably have the most thoughtful analysis of skills needs driven by immigration in the world. they have leapfrogged everybody else. they have something called the migration committee, sponsored by the government, but independent. the government will ask is there a shortage of systems design engineers in the automotive industry? they will analyze that question and tell the government what they think in a very sophisticated way, and the government can say, too bad, we are not going to do anything about it, or we're going to respond to this set of recommendations, but only part of it. the big advantage of that system is you have an independent analysis of claims of shortage or surplus.

right now we have different claims of shortage and claims of surplus in different areas of high skills. if we had an independent force the said we cannot find signs of shortage in this area, but in this area we are seeing real problems, and a published that report, not just a private report to the government, but they publish it and make it problems, what it does is in the newspaper discussions of these issues in britain, they actually have an intelligent discussion based on data. whereas here, what we have is -- well, you know what we have. we have claims of shortage, claims of surplus, and nothing ever happens. >> if i could add, also, imagine we could also apply that model domestically. so in the state of michigan, one of the work force centers

coordinated closely with industry and said what kind of graduates do we need in the next 15-20 years? and a high school guidance counselors advised in terms of what the industry needs are. when i was in high school, i had no idea what industry to go to, no concept of what the future was going to look like. that is probably what most kids in high school are doing today, blindly picking professions rather than having some kind of data to decide. >> interesting. a lot of the analysis has already been done. as we look at wells, invest in education, and consider what the future needs are, from an auto industry perspective, what does it take to make our industry attractive to an individual applying to companies, i think there is a

call to action. >> my name is glenn oliver. our company operates a global procurement exchange for the water industry. in relation to our technology in cities, one of the things that is a challenge is that you have a huge amount of innovation out there, even here on a local level, particularly coming out of an arbor, that is available to cities, but you still have the reluctance or resistance to change in city governments. i would like to know what the panel thinks about the merits of possibly the federal government using its resources

like it did with reis to the top or with -- race to the top or digital medical records to provide incentives for folks to switch to technology that would help deliver services or manage infrastructure with some of the new technological solutions that are out there that they are reluctant to adopt. >> three questions. >> i will give it a shot. i think bruce's point about how cities are looking at each other and seeing what the best innovations are and trying to adopt them -- but i think it is not a seamless process at all. i think if you have that sort of federal role where somebody is identifying best practices and offering incentives for technology adoption and innovation, i think ugg could be very valuable exercise to try. one of the things technology does is allow for a high-speed traffic exchange of ideas.

you do not see that in government the way we need. >> i think the federal government could put incentives and hardware the outcome that we're looking for as far as dollars are concerned in terms of infrastructure investment or investment in the cities. it is probably more important in terms of leadership that the city level, being open to technology, being open to innovation. i will give you an example. in the city of washington, d.c., when hoover first came in, the city council decided to say they were boring to pass along a law banning hoovers because it would disrupt the traditionalists taxi system. it was sort of a clash between old and new, and in the end,

the innuendo -- the new ended up winning out. but there are people with a stake in preserving the status quo. we need leaders who are willing to embrace technology and embrace the future in the name of jobs, in the name of a lot of other areas around procurement. >> as the last academic, i think i should say that one of the strongest defenders of the status quo is academia. since we are here at wayne state in an academic institution, i think it would be useful to pick up on the point, to look at how our

graduate degree structures intersect with the need of the non-academic labor market. right now, our graduate programs are focused on producing people with ph these for the academic labor market, -- ph.d.'s for the academic labor market, which is not expanding rapidly, if at all. yet you have companies looking for highly educated people they say they cannot find. academia does not have the kind of graduate degrees that intersect very closely with the needs of the non academic labor market. so, one thing to look at is the developing professional science master's degree programs around the country. i think there are not that many in michigan, although michigan state university has been a leader nationally in the effort.

there are now nearly 300 of these degree programs which are science and engineering plus basic business skills. >> my name is gary samuels. my question has to do with mentor ship and collaboration. it is relevant to the conversation now as well as the discussion earlier. if we educate and retool somebody, meaning the actually get placed in a position, there is still the risk of them really assimilating in being able to perform well. i would love to hear comments from the panel around, what can we do to improve mentor ship and collaboration programs within the corporate environment or a business environment, and then the same for the community, if you have an entrepreneur who has great vision and great talent, he may be missing something. he may need a co-founder or person who can mentor him around the economics of business and so forth. how can we improve this collaboration for entrepreneurs

as well as people who are being retooled? >> do you want to take that? you live it. >> it is a great question. one of the things we have been embracing at ford over the past several years is the broadest concept of innovation. partnering with nontraditional partners, established companies, is smaller startups, and so on, harnessing innovation to bring it forward. a lot of that is taking place right here in the michigan area. they do think a couple of things are appropriate. one, incentives to accelerate seed money or callous money to kickstart -- catalyst money to

kickstart these things. we have to be competitive in a global sense, both in terms of the technology and in the business model, to ensure that it is sustainable. the second question, as we ashley bring new engineers into our companies -- actually bring in new engineers into our companies and steer them through the first critical years, whether they're making the transition from another industry or from academia, are absolutely critical. there is often entering, ongoing career development, -- mentoring, ongoing career development, creating the type of work in burma and they expect coming out of college, all -- work environment they expect coming out of college. we also were collaborative lee with our industry partners. -- collaboratively with our industry partners.

>> we have 56 seconds. can we ask a very quick question? quite sure. >> i am from the wayne state school of business. i received a grant to research consumption trends of young chinese in china. what are some things the united states is currently doing to help foster midsize companies to export overseas? >> not nearly enough, is the right answer. we have a commerce department, and that is part of its mandate, but the money that goes into it is pretty minimal. there is not the kind of coordinated, a focused effort that you see for instance in germany.

i think there are a lot of possibilities for collaboration. you have people working on the ground in china doing exactly what you are talking about. a friend of mine is working with state governments. a lot of innovation on this is taking place at the state level. i would like to see more on the state level. >> we are out of time. please join me in thanking our panel. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]. >> coming up in about ten minutes here we'll take you to an update on the response to hurricane sandy. a conference call with the director of homeland security -- secretary of homeland security. also transportation secretary and others which we'll have that live when it gets under way scheduled to start at 2:30. meanwhile president obama has arrived sand houring hurricane

damage. we should hear something from the president later on this afternoon. the president putting his campaign on hold until tomorrow when he's back out on the campaign trail in wisconsin. mitt romney campaigning today. we'll have campaign stop this evening in jacksonville with mitt romney live on c-span. ahead of that vice president biden is no ohio and we'll have that at 3:00 eastern on c-span. and in ohio is states governor are traveling across the state encouraging early voting here six days out. we'll have their stop in ohio coming thup afternoon at 5:30 eastern. >> under indiana has made incredible progress in the last eight years. we've balanced budgets and now

we have the largest budget surplus ever in history. it's going to make it possible tor us to cut taxes for every hoosier. but jon, you just said we pay for things in indiana. but when you were speaker of the house, for five of the six years you were running the state house, indiana ran deficits. when mitch daniels came into power indiana was $700 million in debt and had a deficit of $820 million. facts are stubborn things and i'd like to knoll how are we going to make sure and preserve the fiscal integrity of the state of indiana. >> if you had spent the last 12 years here you'd know our budget has to be balanced. i produce balanced budget t and

they were supported by our own lieutenant governor. i find it laughable that a united states congressman would lecture anybody about fiscal responsibility. you voted five times, congressman, you you voted and the results increased our deficit by $200 billion with a b dollars. >> find key house and governor races on c-span campaign 2012. >> an update on hurricane sandy coming up at about 2:30 eastern which up until then with an election a few days away a look at new hampshire. >> fst past week we've been taking a look at nine swing states and today we put the

spotlight on the state of new hampshire. with the small state up in the northeast corner holding 4 electoral votes. right now its unemployment rathe 5.7%. and president obama won this state by a large margin back in 2008 with 9%. let's begin with top issues for new hampshire voters. guest: good morning. and before i get started i want to thank c-span and c-span radio on 15 years being on the year. it's been a very valuable resource for some of us. up here in new hampshire we are a swing state four electoral votes. it sound like a small number. but if al gore had won the four votes he would have become

president. so they are very important and this state right now is a toss up. the issues are a little bit different here in new hampshire than they would be across the country. unlike a state like nevada that has a higher unemployment rate, new hampshire is at 5.7%. that's higher than it was all summer around 5.2%. this means that jobs and the economy is an issue that is front and center and it is the number one issue but it may not ring home as much as other issues. host: what areas of new hampshire are the swing areas of that state historically, have provided the winner with the electoral votes? guest: well, right now, we're seeing that the candidates are coming into the president's campaign has been coming into the seast coast area. cities like cotch chester are

indick cative of what may happen in this election. but the second largest city in the state, we're seeing the president was there a few days ago, last saturday in fact, and it seems it been a place that's being fought over. it's right along the massachusetts border. of course massachusetts is the state that governor romney led. so it's a very interesting area. many of the people from there work in massachusetts. host: describe the voters in these areas, who are they? guest: well, new hampshire has traditionally a libertarian streak. our motto is live free or die. and it is sort of a toss up location. the voters, i think they are voting for the person they think is going to lead this country for the next four years. some people will say new hampshire. well new hampshire has a summer

home of governor romney and the state next door massachusetts where he was governor. but i think that's less of a factor. i think the people of new hampshire can see grond that and they are voting for the personal they think is best for the 50 states. host: tell us about the history of new hampshire being a swing state. guest: well traditionally new hampshire was republican for many years. i think it's the clinton 1992 phenomenon that has changed that. clinton won this state twice. in 2,000 it went to george w. bush. but in two thour four it went to john carry. the president got a nine point victory in 2008. so we are a toss up state. the polls go back and forth forth. it's difficult to determine

who is going to win this state. host: how do residents vote on election day? guest: there is not early voting but tr is absentee ballots which have you to sign a form saying you're not going to be available on voting day to come to the polls. traditionally polls are open from 7:00 to 7:00, some are open until 8:00 p.m. on election day. we have one of the highest voter turnouts in the country. other stratist cal facts are that we are one of the least tax states in the nation, the least stack state actually. we have no income tax, no sales tax. both the democrat and republican candidates will campaign on that issue pledging that they will not have an income tax or sales tax. our two governor candidates are

running on that issue as a matter of fact. host: and talk about the recount laws that are in the state of new hampshire. is it possible that there could be a recount in this state and first of all, what are the rules for that? guest: well, we have specific rules obviously for the state. we have a fine secretary of state who is quite experienced in this. he is the person who has been keeper of the flame, if you will, for the new hampshire primary. we had a famous recount here in the late 1970's with senator john durr kin who recently passed away. frankly i don't see it coming down to that. we'll see what happens on tuesday but i think other states may be more likely to have a recount than new hampshire. host: what about voter i.d. laws, do you have them in new

hampshire? guest: yes. and there is some controversy about a new voter law that required people to swear if they were going to vote in a certain town that they would pay their taxes and registration fees for their car in that town. this was apeeled and the state supreme court has put that on hold. so right now some of our voters are slightly confused about those issues going into tuesday. >> in just a minute we're going to take you live to a briefing with homeland security secretary and department secretary on the response to hurricane sandy. transportation secretary earlier today is said his department is providing $13 million to states affected by hurricane sandy. we'll hear more about that when

that news conference gets under way. we'll take you there live on c-span. in the meantime back to campaign 2012 and a look at the battleground state of colorado. >> as it turns out we are going to take you live to the news conference just getting under way with secretary of homeland security and secretary of transportation. >> we also have a representative of the u.s. coast guard. >> good afternoon. thank you. i think what we'll do is start with the forecast on the weather then i'll give an overview of response efforts today and then turn it over.

so do you want to give us the forecast please? >> sure. good afternoon everyone. this is still a very large and sprawling weather system over the northeastern united states. . but it is weaker thanned the been yesterday and certainly compared to monday and monday night. it is still producing some widely scattered pockets of locally heavy rain all the way from the western great lakes michigan indiana area all the way over to vermont, new hampshire. in between and some of the mountainous areas there still is some snow going on. all of that will be papering off by tomorrow for the most part. a couple more inches of snow

possible. there has been more than two feet of snow in some spots. there could be a foot of rain in some spots. there are still places in maryland, one or two in ohio where there are still some very elevated rivers that are at or near a major flood stage. but after today those will be on the dekline and the weather system will continue on into canada. the coastal flooding is really just a couple feet above normal tide levels on the on shore flow that is persisting today. but for the most part the most poet tent part of this system is over and things will be improving by tomorrow. that's all i have. >> thank you and as he said this has been one of the

largest and most serious storms ever to tasket united states with very broad and significant impacts in a number of areas. president obama came down to fema this morning to the national resource coordination center along with several members of the cabinet, myself, secretaries, as well as other senior officials. his message to us was clear and consistent with his message over the past few days, get resources where they are needed as fast as possible without excuses or delays. and that's what we are committed to doing. everyone is leaning forward to support the states, communities and tribes in their response. we've engaged the entire emergency management apparatus of the entire country. that also includes the private sector, the faith based

community and many many volunteers. so i'd like to thank all of these partners for their hard work over the last few days. but rest ashured, we are not resting. we are committed to working round the clock to get it done. yesterday the president declared major decasters for connecticut new york and new jersey which makes help available to those in those areas. the designated counties in those states can begin applying for assistance by registering online at www.disaster assistance.gov or calling 1800621-3362. the president has added new hampshire, virginia and west virginia to the list of states

that already have emergency declarations and that allows fema to provide resources to those states and local al tiss engaged in life sustaining activities. in terms of rescue operations nine search and rescue teams continue to support state and local efforts. a come bind 700 rescues have been performed since yesterday. the army corpse of engineers are actively engaging with states and the power companies and we know that is a key challenge in many of the areas affected by sandy. as a temporary measure, the government has created a support base to serve as the staging area for the distribution of generators and assess energy requirements for public facilities in the impacted states and areas.

in other words, through that support base, we are able to consolidate where the generators are going and to priority ties where the generators are going so they go to the places of gatest need. we continue to support shelter operations in partnership with the red cross and other organizations. as of yesterday more than 258 shelters were open across 16 states supporting over 11,000 residents. fema is supporting the provision of meals, water and other critical supplies to the affected states. in all, we have more than 2200 personnel positioned along the east coast and the national guard has deployed more than 7400 forces on duty to support response and recovery. we understand that people are anxious to return home. we also know however that given the scope of the damage, it's

going to take some time to get power back on, roads cleared, transportation systems up and running again. there are still many hazards out there including downed power lines, unpassable roads and bridges and traffic lights not yet working. so we don't want people in harm's way. we continue to advise people to pay attention to their local officials who can tell them when an evacuated area is now safe to return to. so we're asking everyone to be patient as we work with all speed we can to receive guidance from local officials and to work to restore the basic necessities of life in the area affected by this storm. we'll continue to provide regular updates on our progress. i want to thank you and i'm going to turn it back over. >> i'm going to turn it over to secretary of transportation.

>> thank you very much. the president has directed us to immediately do all we can to support our state and local partners as they work to restore vital transportation infrastructure. following this dangerous storm. and that is exactly what we're doing. yesterday, less than 24 hours after sandy made land fall, as a part of the extensive federal effort being coordinated by fema, d.o.t. issued $13 million dollars in fund immediately available, $10 million to new york and $3 million to rhode island. the $13 million is our first installment of funds to states in the affected areas to help begin repairing damage to roads, highways, sea walls, bridges. we expect other states to apply for emergency relief funding in the coming days and we will

immediately address these requests as they come in. restoring critical infrastructure is essential to enabling states and relief workers to assess impacted communities. these are repairs that are immediately necessary so that residents can begin to resume daily activities. the funding answers the president's call for agencies to act quickly, to help the affected states. but it's not all we are doing to help with d.o.t. we are doing all we can to get transit service up and running and that is a top prirpte in the affected states and cities. the federal transit administration is coordinating efforts to try and get equipment like buses and rail cars in the impacted areas so service can resume as quickly as possible.

our federal motor carrier safety administration has issued emergency notice that temporary lifts certain requirements and regulations to make it easier for trucks to provide emergency relief and supplies. these are just some of the actions we're taking and it's just the beginning. all of us at d.o.t. are committed and ready to help restore transportation in the affected states. back to you. >> thank you sir. now let me turn it over to the senior vice president for disaster services at the red cross. >> thank you. good afternoon. as the secretaries have already indicated, this is a very large and extensive storm.

the red cross is operational in 16 states, an area as large as europe. it was already pointed out on the extensive sheltering operations taking place across those states. the red cross has activitied more than 200 vehicles to distribute meals, waters and snacks in key areas. we've mobile liesed more than 2300 of our volunteers and disaster workers. we will be mobile liesing and moving thousands more from across the country. we're working hard to get help where help is needed but secretary indicated still access is a bit of an issue in some places. we are pushing heavily more resources. we're active in every one of the states and we're active in fema's national response coordination center and will thrilled to be working alongside the strong leadership at fema.

this response is very large and very costly. many of our red cross blood drives have been cancelled due to the storm. more cancellations are expected but we could see as much as 10,000 500 plooded blad and plate let products. so we're encuringing the public to make a blood donation. i want to remind people about our hurricane app that can be downloaded. it includes an i'm safe feature with the push of one button people can indicate through facebook they're safe and let their loved ones know they're all safe. this is going to be a costly operation for the american red cross and we can't do it without the contributions of the american public. we want to encourage folks to

visit redcross.org to make a doe inflammation or text the word red cross to make a $10 contribution. these gifts are the only way we can provide the food, shelter and assistance when people are impacted by decasters. i'll throw it back to you. >> we'll go into question and answer section. we have sabt 15 minutes left in this conference call. please limit yourself to one question, no follow ups. >> if you'd like to ask a question press star one. i'll introduce you. our first question comes from bloomberg news. >> secretary, the $3.6 billion

in the disaster relief fund is enough for the storm. are you concerned that a lot of that money will be used up for this storm and you wouldn't have enough for the rest of the fiscal year? >> yeah, the disaster relief fund is funded. we've got the resources we need right now. we do not anticipate that the durr its is going to be a limitation at all on the response. >> our next question is with wall street journal. >> could you provide some more details on the generator issue. can you tell us how many are providing power and where they are and how many more do you expect to have deployed? >> we can give you some follow up off line but let me give you some rough numbers. these are the large generators used for facilities like

hospitals, nursing homes and things of that sort but there are 252 deployed now. another 280 plus that are on route into the affected areas. and those are just the ones under the corp of enneers. i think work is being done seeking other generators available from other sources. >> next question. >> this might be for -- from your experience when you look at new york city and what it's going through in terms of its transportation issues right now, how long do you think it will be up and running totally? >> i think that there are already some transit facilities

that are running. i know that there are trance sit is running to 42ened street and there are buses there that are going to deliver people around the remainder of the city. and i know that there is transit running up to the river from brooklyn to the river and then buses to deliver people over to manhattan. so there is some transit capability that is -- >> but i mean fully functional as it was prethe storm? >> i have no idea. it depends on how long it takes out to pump out the swace. they not only need to be pumped out, they need to be -- the equipment needs to be looked at and repaired because there is salt water in there. and so what we're doing is we're providing the -- well the

city is providing the kind of service new jersey transit and new york transit and the city are providing transportation in the best ways that thect. and as these tunnels get pumped out, obviously subway service will be resumed. >> next question. >> thanks for taking my question. i was surprised to hear that new jersey wasn't listed along with new york and rhode island for the quick release dollars because it was the hardest hit state. what is being done with regard to helping new jersey's roads and transit? >> obviously you've seen the governor of new jersey running all over the state making assessments. and the president and the governor are doing that as we speak. as soon as the governor has some idea what he believes the

cost are, i'm sure heel communicate that to us, we'll look at it very quickly and respond. >> next question. >> secretary, i was wondering whether the faa has looked at the damage from the storm at some of the new york area airports and whether all those runways are going to be back in operation soon or whether they think there is some damage there that can't be fixed right away? >> there is three runways open at j.f.k. they should be receiving over 200 flights today. laguardia is closed because one of the run ways was impacted by

flooding. i believe new wark is not open this morning but probable open by now and receiving and departing flights are going in and out of there. kennedy is pretty much open three run ways. laguardia is closed while they determine what they will do with the runway that was flooded. >> next question. >> this is for secretary. mr. secretary, can you talk about what the f.t.a. can do for new york city rail in terms of funding? you've talked about a coordinating role but there are some estimates that could take tense of billions of dollars to get service fully restored. will f.t.a. be releasing any

funds the way the federal highway administration has done? >> yeah. that's a good question particularly given the fact we have this emergency highway money. but f.t.a. in the past has always worked with fema to provide disaster relief support. and that's what we're encuringing again to coordinate efforts. but we're looking at providing rail cars and buses. we're on the phone now trying to determine how many buses and how many rail cars we might be able to provide from other transit agencies and bus companies and so forth. but as far as the funding goes, we're encouraging people to work with fema and through fema as they have always done in the past. you know that there was language included in mat 21 but

there was no money. but we believe the money can be made available through fema as has been the case in the past and that's what we're encouraging. >> just reiterating that our efforts here are in support of the states and the local al tiss so they're telling us what their unmet needs are and we're working to get those needs met so that transportation system is up and running. and it may not be for a while like it was before the storm, that's a long range project, but what we are focused on is moving people to and prowork and schools that also need to be worked on in terms of getting reopen so these communities can resume the normal pays of life. >> next question.

>> question for secretary. is it clear that new york and rhode island are the only two states that have requested emergency transportation funds. and the second question is do you expect other states to -- i think you said that once they make their assessments they may make requests. and how much total do you think will be spenlt in emergency transportation? and a question -- >> we're only doing one question. so if you could answer her first question. >> we did receive a request an hour or two ago from north carolina and we're looking at that. what was the other part of your question? >> how much in total do you think will be spent on emergency transportation funding for the storm? >> i don't have the slightest

idea. we've already allocated $13 million and we'll look at north carolina as we speak. and hopefully be able to approve that very quickly this afternoon. and we await other requests obviously from new jersey and we'll see what some of these other states come up with. >> next question. >> move on to the next question please. >> can you explain the status of the ports in new york and whether any commerce is getting in or out? >> thank you for the question. all the ports in the northeast

are open except for new york. and what we're doing in new york is working with all our port partners which is port authority, vessel pilots and a number of commercial users in evaluating all the facilities. we also have to make sure there are no blockages or obstructions on the bottom which could have come from something sunken in the storm. to answer your question is picture is coming together right now. there are a number of piers which are damage and trying to be brought into partial use ability. we have the corp of engineers to help us make a real evaluation. but we understand how important it is to get things moving just from getting people back and forth to work and bringing in the commercial users and that is our top priority today. >> we have time for one more question. >> secretary, i wonder if you

can give us an idea how many people have died in the hurricane. we have been hearing conflicting reports about the number of deaths so far? >> as of this morning there were 19 confirmed. some of the news out let's report death that is are not yet confirmed. as of about 11:00 this morning our reports were 19 actually confirmed. and that information will be updated as these tragedies are confirmed and the loss of life is confirmed. other people in addition to loss of life, of course many people lost their homes or their businesses, lost everything they have. so we are working day and night and moving heaven and earth to

do everything we can to help these individuals get back on their feet and help these affected communities and states get through this storm. >> we're going to end today east call. if you would like more information you can go to www.fema.gov and for information about red cross efforts you can go to www.redcross.org. with that we'll end today's call. >> and here on c-span we are live in new jersey. this is the marina just north of at lant tick city. president obama has been touring hurricane damage. and they have just wrapped up an hour long helicopter flight. the pool reporting this is the

new york sometimes tweeting president obama done with the tour of new jersey. we just lost the shot there. it's in bad shape. seaside hathes even worse. we're hoping to see a briefing in just a bit from the president and governor christy. we'll have that whits available here on c-span which we're going to take you live to florida. here is the live look at the scene. vice president biden has three appearances campaign appearances, a couple in fla la and ohio today. and we will take you live to the biden event once it gets started. we'll have it live for you here on c-span. in the meantime from this morning washington journal a discussion about the october surprise. host: we turn our attention now to the history of the october surprise. the event or events that happen before an election. reid wilson is the editor and

chief of the hot line. you wrote this piece october surprises hit up and down. what you wrote is the october surprises a long storied and mostly exaggerated history. so why do we have october surprises? what are they? >> well this notionguest: this t minute big motion -- big moment that changes the trajectory of a race started in 1972, when henry kissinger said a couple of days before the election that there was a possibility of peace in the vietnam war. just before the election. it was seen as an effort to get those last few voters who were upset with president nixon over the vietnam war i and his camp. turns out he did not really need those extra voters. the media is always looking for that big, game changing moment in the last month that can move undecided voters into one camp

or the other. the problem is that most of the time the so-called october surprise does not happen or can happen in september or sometime earlier. the big thing that moved the 2008 election was the collapse of lehman brothers. remember 2004? reports of president george w. bush and his service in the alabama national guard popped up in the last couple weeks of the election. in 2000 there were reports of his d u y arrests that bush had in connecticut a couple of decades before that. in both decades, it did not move many votes. the idea of it as something that can completely alter a presidential contest has not been done very much over the past couple of decades. >> you noted the example of george w. bush, but he won. is there evidence that october

surprise sways voters? >> i cite some examples in that article. at erases a look happening farther down the ballot. guest: in that debate, he made comments about the debate that were able to be used in a democratic campaign advertisement. by the way, it has sunk his polls, donnelly leads according to polls for both sides. this was a declaration by a candidate, a big mistake, a self-inflicted october surprise

that changed the race. they can make a difference, they just do not always necessarily make a difference and do not on the presidential level. >> you cite the example of the republican in tennessee. tell us about that race. what happened? >> a big victory -- guest: a big victory over the freshman, he got the second highest margin of any incumbent democrat seeking reelection in a wave of 2010. now, just a couple of weeks before the election, one of the local papers has a story of a woman who was a patient of his, when he was a physician, they had an affair and he is on tape urging her to have an abortion. this is not something that goes over well in socially conservative rural tennessee. now the conservative state senator democrat running against him looks like he has got a

chance now, where he did not earlier. this is an october surprise that is not something the candidate said, but it comes out in the media, a timely document dump, if you will. there were the first outlet to report this affair with a patient. then the local paper just reported another affair that he had with a patient one decade ago. this is a race where a couple of timely dumps have really made what should not have been a competitive contest into something that is a close race. host: what could be, in this election, something that is a possible october surprise? a guest: we have seen two so far. aboutitt romney's a video the 47%, from back in may, when that came out republicans across the country saw their poll numbers drop overnight. it had people really scared that

a democratic wave was developing because it was such a damaging comment. it went to the heart of the worst caricatures of the republican party. that really caused a dramatic change. the race got so far apart for just a little bit that it looked like some of the outside groups might decide to give up on mitt romney and just try to work on fortifying the base. the second game changing moment came along when president obama decided to naps through his first debate in denver. after that event, the democrats saw a similar drop in the polls. across the board, not as president obama, but senate and house candidates, the numbers dropped in a heart sickening thud for both sides. this is a late moment, game changing moment like that that can have a serious impact. because we had two back-to-back,

they sort of even themselves out. mitt romney was at his lowest moment when that videotape now. obama was at his lowest moment after that debate in denver. >> what about the storm? this is the washington times from yesterday. the last week of this presidential campaign, they put sandy as the number one thing to watch. >> there is a big risk when any kind of storm bruce almost anywhere in the country. american history is replete with mayors and governors to handle snowstorms badly and wind up losing elections next year. president george w. bush's approval rating never recovered after his handling of hurricane katrina. this is a big risk for president obama. he had to show that he was a leader, minimize damage, look like he was an in get -- look

like he was engaged, and by the way, there was an election in a week. he was on the phone with governors and mayors all up and down the eastern seaboard. chris christie, the governor of new jersey, his state was hardest hit. he had made some very favorable comments. over the last couple of months they made some really favorable comments. so, here is a moment in which a president can show great leadership, an opportunity to demonstrate the power of the white house or incumbency, or he can screw it up and bought everything, losing the election because of it. he is probably tilting towards the leadership right now. there have not been any serious critiques of the obama handling of the storm in the aftermath. what is mitt romney to do? he is in this middle place,

where there is no role for an opposition candidate. no accepted script for what one of these candidates is supposed to do when one of these storms come along. there is a risk for both sides and a benefit that advantages obama more than mitt romney. >> governor romney will be in florida for these three rallies. also, vice-president joe biden. there it is. we will show you governor romney in florida with jeb bush. and joe biden, look for coverage today of around 3:00 p.m. eastern time on c-span, a campaign rally in that state. also, fast forwarding to this friday, when the jobs report comes out, could that be a game

changer? >> i do not think so. we have noticed that over the last several months, good news or bad news, these jobs reports are not really moving numbers. largely because the average american does not really pay attention to them. they know, vaguely, that personal unemployment is high and their own situation is not good. their view of the economy will not be changed by the bureau of labor statistics. it will be how their family is doing financially. those are the most obvious economic indicators. if this jobs report is bad news or great news, first of all i do not think that a lot of people will pay attention. second of all, a significant amount of people have already voted. millions in florida, millions in ohio. every place where democrats are

trying to drive for early voting and absentee voting. our firsts go to phone call. baton rouge, louisiana. go ahead. caller: hello? guest: how're you doing? caller: how are you this morning? guest: not bad. caller: i would like to see if this is a game changer. have you looked at the obama birth certificate lately? where it says that his father is not an american citizen? that he was a citizen of kenya? when you go to the constitution, it says that in order to be president, you have to have two parents that are citizens of the

united states. guest: that is not accurate, it does not actually say that. the birth certificate issue -- >> you can follow this in our video library, c-span.org. we are taking you live to florida, where vice president joe biden is getting under way with his rally. live, here on c-span. ♪ [applause] >> hello. hello, hello, hello. [applause] what a classy lady. thank you so much. god love you. [applause] >> we love you. >> my name is joe biden, i am married to jill biden.

folks, it is such an honor to be here. thank you so much for being here. where is councilman rich? thank you for reading the, mary. the chairman of the democratic party, one of the most thankless jobs in american politics. [applause] and the amazing grace nelson. [applause] you have got a two for, you have got a two for. i have never met anyone who cares more and is more engaged in protecting the state of florida and cape -- grace nelson. great to be here. i was on a call for the last several days, ever since sandy hit the northeast. for a northeastern boy to talk about hurricanes to floridians

is a little bit like being called in newcastle. but you know what those folks have gone through, up my way. every morning the president and i have a call with all of the administration officials, from fema to the homeland security folks. we talk with all the governors in the affected states, as well as a lot of the mares. i am confident in telling you that the federal government, state government, is doing everything in their power to coordinate relief rapidly from the people who have been devastated by this storm. you know? as tragic as it is, my mother, god bless her soul, she said that if something bad happens, something good will come if you look hard enough. my state of delaware, my state

is a low-lying state, the hurricane went on shore about 30 miles from home with beach, over in new jersey. my state, where my in-laws used to live, where my brother and sisters live, it was hit pretty bad. i have a sister-in-law and a family that lives in ocean city do jersey. on the call we had yesterday with all of the governor's, it warmed my heart. you had the governor of delaware, the governor of connecticut, democrats and republicans, all of them saying -- they were hurt -- and the governor of maryland -- all of them saying to new jersey and new york, look, if you need extra resources, we will send

you ours. hearing the mayor of these big cities, like mayor bloomberg -- by the way, one hell of a fine guy, the mayors of new york, newark, new jersey, hoboken, they are all offering each other help. democrats and republicans, acting like they are supposed to act. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, you know, i know this sounds almost trite, but it is necessary in these times -- we are always better off as a nation when we pull together. always. my hope is that when this election is over, that is what we have to do again. pull together as a nation.

democrats and republicans. there are too many gigantic opportunities to continue the kind of bickering that has gone between the parties these last four years. the american people have an opportunity to make a fundamental choice in the direction they want to see this country go. frankly, our vision and their vision for america are totally different. they are good, decent men, they just have a very different view of the prospects in this country than we do. as you saw in the debates, i began to wonder about that last one, between governor romney and the president. i did not know if you is there to endorse president obama or debate president obama. [applause] we roman catholics call that an epiphany. he had an epiphany before my

very eyes. the governor had been saying for a long time now what a tragic mistake it was to end the war in iraq and not leave 30,000 warriors there. all of a sudden this sound like he was against the iraq war from the beginning. [laughter] i thought that he might have rack the same way that ba did back then. he went from labeling russia as our most significant geopolitical foe, let me tell you, he was also opposed to the new start treaty, which every single solitary republican national security adviser and director of defense was for. he was against it. he said he never would have supported it. all of a sudden i found out that his new best buddy is russia.

"we can work with russia. we can be very close with russia." i mean -- [laughter] [applause] he went from harshly criticizing us for saying that we will, and we will turn over full responsibility of the afghan military at the end of 2014 and come home, he went from saying that we should never have set a timetable, that he would not do that. i had a debate as well, with ryan. [applause] i and my debate with ryan, he was talking about having more troops and americans in there, we should not have set the date. along comes mitt romney. i generation came on the wings of a snow white dove, preaching

love. i tell you what, man. it was amazing to me. i want to ask, as i asked congressman ryan, when i asked if he would leave, a guarantee, leave by 2014, he said that it depends. folks, in case you have not noticed, everything with mitt romney and paul ryan depends. it depends on the audience, the polls. it depends on who they are and who they are talking to. it just depends on how they feel. it depends. we cannot have a president where everything depends. my grandfather's name was andrew, from scranton. i swear he used to say -- joey, be aware of the converted.

these guys, i am telling you. i said it today, real epiphany. on the issues related to women -- by the way -- [applause] again, i cannot tell you how impressed i am with joyce. this is a woman who absolutely feels it in her bones. she knows it, she understands it. on the issue of women, there they could not bring themselves -- they could not bring themselves to move out of the 1950's. i am being deadly earnest here. deadly earnest. think about it. all of these congressional candidates, the outrageous things they're saying. this senate candidate in indiana, murdoch. here is the point. here is the point.

sometimes silence can be deafening. their refusal to condemn what murdoch says says more about them than it says about murdoch. [applause] when governor romney was asked a question that joist referenced, do you think that women should get paid the same for the same work as men, what did romney start talking about? he started talking about binders. binders. he found a binder full of women. holy moly. [laughter] [applause] i mean, it is amazing. it is amazing. i hope that he kept that binder. you know what, folks?

he never did answer the question, whether or not women were entitled to the same pay for the same work. then again, it should not surprise you. his spokesperson said that he was against the lily ledbetter act. ryan voted against it. i will tell you one thing that he did say, he said he wanted to repeal a law that bill nelson helped us to pass that says, but no longer can insurance companies charge women as they do now 50% more for the same health insurance. [applause] he did say that he wanted to repeal law, you younger women will think i am making this up, but ask any woman who has had to get insurance on her own, he said he wanted to repeal the law that said insurance companies could no longer label pregnancy as pre-existing

conditions. people think i am making that up. you try to get insurance, you found out that that was a pre- existing condition. he did say he wanted to repeal that law. ladies and javelins, let me ask you, and i need this sincerely, the most important decision a president makes, whether or not to go to war or not, is who he or she appoints to the supreme court. because the supreme court appointments outlast any presidential term. close your eyes, joyce, just imagine all the women's rights you have fought for for the last 40 years or more, imagine what kind of shape they will be in under a mitt romney appointed supreme court. not a joke. not a joke. maybe it is the most important issue we have spoken to in this presidential election, what the new supreme court will look like if it is a mitt romney appointed

supreme court. when it comes to women's rights, i want to be absolutely clear to you, and i say this in every part of the country, we believe in our core, that my daughter, my four granddaughters, his daughters, they deserve every single opportunity that my sons and my grandson's have. [applause] every single opportunity. no exceptions. as pointed out by the president, this is more than a women's issue, this is an economic issue. this is an economic issue. ladies and gentlemen, in the final weeks of these campaigns, not only are they trying to wiggle out of their position on women and foreign policy, now they are running away from the fundamental tenants upon which this new republican t party is

based. for real, i mean this sincerely. it is based on two things. one, continuing to give massive tax cuts to the very wealthy. the five dali -- $5 trillion tax plan that governor romney ran on, right here in the primaries in florida, that $5 trillion plan, $1.60 trillion of which goes to people making a minimum of $1 million per year. all of a sudden, all of a sudden it is gone. as my fourth granddaughter would say, natalie, did casper the friendly ghost steal it? where did it go? think about it. it was a central element of their organizing principle, but because partisan groups pointed out that that plan would raise middle-class taxes by $2,000 per year, all of a sudden it has

vanished. all of a sudden mitt romney says -- do not worry, it will not cost anything. we will eliminate loopholes for the very wealthy. ladies and gentlemen, for people making over $1 million per year, only $54 billion in loopholes are added up. the reason your taxes have gone up is they have to go after the things that are the backbone of the middle-class. ladies and gentlemen, there is one, when asked, when i asked that ryan in my date, name me one loophole you will close, he did not name it. remember? not once. remember, he was on fox news, the friendliest network in the world to republicans. chris wallace interviewed him before the debate and said, about the $5 billion tax cut, he said we did not have a $5

billion tax cut. even chris wallace was stunned. he said -- wait a minute, tell me about this. he said -- explain it to me. he said that the math was too complicated, that he did not have enough time. folks, folks, the only tax breaks that they say they will not fool around with is the very tax break that allows romney to pay only 14% on $2 million per year. the only one. remember 2020? i am not making this up. scott miller asked him -- governor, you only paid 14% on $20 million. someone paying more than that pays less than you do, is that

fair? he says that is fair. no wonder he wants to keep that loophole. as the president said, the governor's plans are a little bit sketchy. i do not want to correct the president in public, but i will today. those plans are not sketchy, they are at a sketch -- etch-a- sketchy. [applause] [laughter] it was like a blizzard, without the snow. the only place they are sticking to their guns is maintaining the tax cuts that are due to expire. that tax cut cost $1 trillion. of that $1 trillion, $800 billion -- this is the god's truth, goes to people making a minimum of $1 million.

$500 billion goes to 120,000 families in america. their average income is $8 million per year. i come from one of the wealthiest states in america, first for second-highest per capita income. ladies and gentlemen, i learned my thing. wealthy people are just as patronizing as poor people, but they do not need that tax cut. the other central premise they are running away with is their budget policy. remember why paul ryan was picked? not making fun, i am serious. he was the intellectual leader of the new way. he heralded it for all of the conservative think tanks. mitt romney said that he picked apart his budget ideas.

already blocked by the senate and bill nelson, it passed the house. let me tell you how "the new york times" tag him -- they said that this was the most extreme budget plan passed by a house of congress in modern times. even newt gingrich said that it is right wing social engineering. so, no wonder they are running away from it now. look at what it does to medicare. as george said, it is shameless what they are saying. they are saying that we, we are hurting medicare. ladies and gentlemen, you know anyone on medicare? you are better off now than you were before we came in. $600 more for the doughnut hole. no co pay. saying to your doctor, no co pay

for the annual visit. we have made it solvent. they would wipe it all out. the real secret, the real thing they are not talking about, are they going to talk about the convention? they are not talking about it now. the central element of the budget, they literally eliminated medicare as a guarantee program. even that train agrees with me. even the railroad knows i am telling the truth. [applause] here's the deal, here is the deal, you should all be aware of this, call-up anyone reaching the age of 65, when they become eligible for their new medicare plan, anyone who is automatically off of medicare, you can buy back in with a voucher. they would give you a coupon. but the coupon is designed not

to keep pace with the cost of health care. that is why every outside group points out that it will cost seniors tens of thousands of dollars more, if you are 55 and you go on it, $60,000 more for your medicare. 45 years old, by the time you qualify, $125,000 more. ladies and gentlemen, this is a sham. the truth of the matter is that the mitt romney paul ryan budget not only decimates medicare and knocks 19 million people off of medicaid, it takes $5 billion out of education and eliminates all of that middle class where folks get to keep their kids in college, eviscerating pell grants, etc. ladies and gentlemen, for them education is an afterthought.

for us it is the foundation upon which the middle class was built. the key to success in the 21st century. [applause] by the way, you have to ask yourself, why are they doing -- they are running away from this. why would they do it in the first place? there is a simple reason. they are not bad guys, they actually believed, they actually believe that the way to go -- grow this country is from the top down. they actually believe that another $2 trillion in tax cuts for people making over $1 million per year will somehow stimulate the economy. ladies and gentlemen, we have seen that movie before. we know how it ends. it is a horror movie holiday, isn't it? [applause] 9 million people losing their

jobs. tens of thousands of floridians seeing the equity in their home evaporate. the 401 k eviscerated. ladies and gentlemen, it ended in the great recession of 2008. the american people will not go back. [applause] you know, there is an expression in my family, i know many have a version of this. my mother used to say that a measure of character is not what you do when people see you and are looking, it is what you do when no one is looking. you saw what mitt romney believes when he thought no one was looking. he said what he believed. he thinks half the american people are unwilling to take

responsibility for their own lives. where is he from? now where i was raised in scranton. now where we come from. ladies and gentlemen, the vast majority of these people, they have jobs, they go out and they pay their taxes. they pay their property taxes, they pay a higher rate than romney. ladies and gentlemen, they are made up of seniors who have worked their entire lives, paying into social security. now they are not paying taxes on it and they should not be paying tax on it. those 68,000 warriors, who as i speak are wandering through those got awful hills of off and the stand. i have been there many times. they are getting paid, but they are not paying any income tax,

nor should they. ladies and gentlemen, the american people -- this is what disappoints me most about these guys. i mean this. this is the first time in my lifetime i can remember two candidates for the highest office of the land who have such a low opinion of the american people and our prospects. ladies and gentlemen, look, every time something positive happens, when we created 5.3 million jobs, when exports increased 41% with 500,000 new jobs, new manufacturing jobs were created, when housing starts were at the highest since july of 2008, their response to everything, literally everything is that america is in decline. that's what they talk about. did you ever think you'd hear a

candidate running for president saying that america has developed a culture of dependence? ladies and gentleman, when we rescued the automobile industry, saving 1 million jobs -- [applause] creating over 200,000 new, good paying jobs -- general motors is back, the fastest growing automotive maker in the nation. their response? their response was outrageous. they have become truly desperate in this campaign. i just came from ohio. they are running an ad in ohio saying the following. talk about it, the ad they are running says the following, that barack obama bankrupted the automobile industry so that the entire thing could be sold to the italians -- i do not know what they have against the italians -- sold to the italians

house so that they could offshore jeep to china. that is what they're saying. i am not making it up. here is the cynical part about it. imagine you are from the upper midwest, or delaware, which was one of the biggest automobile producing per-capita states in the country. after all that those guys and those families have been through, hard-working folks, working their whole lives, through no fault of their own in the last year that we were elected, 400,000 automobile jobs lost. more important, 400,000 people dropping out of the middle- class. 400,000 and all the ancillary folks associated with it, seeing their dream shattered. my father had to leave from

scranton, pa., to find a job in wilmington. refrained, that we can remember, my sister valerie is here -- [applause] my father had the following saying -- a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. it is about your dignity. it is about respect and your place in the community. all of these people in the upper midwest were decimated, finally, finally, through the efforts of the president and a lot of people in the congress, they brought back the automobile industry, they are back at work and able to care for their families. they have a sense of security. guess where these guys are running those advertisements? they are running those very advertisements in toledo, ohio, in the rain, in the very places

where these people just got back on their feet, trying to scare the living that a lot of them. -- the living bedevelled out of them. i know they do not think that fact checkers matter, but politifact called it completely inaccurate. the cleveland plain dealer said that it was a masterpiece in this direction. i have been doing this for a long time and i do not remember a major corporate entity inserting themselves directly in the middle of a presidential campaign, but chrysler said "a leap that would be difficult even for a professional circus acrobat." [laughter] that is the ". -- quote. by the way, i think it is not an

acrobat, i think it is a contortionist. general motors said they were operating from a parallel universe. here is the thing they got exactly right, they called it campaign politics at its cynical worst. that is not from another local party or the candidate, not from a newspaper or blog, it is from the spokesperson for general motors. ladies and gentleman, after i made this assertion earlier today in sarasota, they rushed congressman ryan out there. seriously. congressman ryan came out and put out a statement, holding a press conference, saying that the facts with the facts. by the way, the ultimate irony of all of this -- remember, the president talked about romney job? well, it is contagious. congressman ryan has caught it.

congressman ryan voted with us. he voted with us in the congress before he saw romney. he said -- these are the facts. he was asserting that the advertisement was factually true. let me tell you what the facts are. the facts are, congressman, that 1 million people are at work who would not have been. the facts are, governor romney, he wrote an editorial called let detroit go bankrupt. the facts are that mitt romney will say anything, anything to win. as the plain dealer put it, he will do anything the matter how much confusion he must so to do it. ladies and gentleman, the role of the president is not to sow confusion, but concert -- confidence.

[applause] you probably heard me say this before, but i am here saying it again, presidential elections are about one thing, first and foremost, a character. character, character, the character of the candidates. ladies and gentlemen, it is clear, our guy has character. our guys says what he means. he means what he says. he never depends on who he is talking to. he stands by what he says. that cannot be said about governor romney. that is a harsh fact. so, ask yourself, and all those listening to this, ask yourself who you trust. who do you trust to tell you what they mean? who do you trust to stand by

you? who do you trust to stand up for the middle-class? to put america's interest before their own? barack obama is the man you should trust. >> [chanting] 4 more years, four more years >> ladies and gentlemen, i have news for governor romney and congressman ryan. america is not in decline, it is the 21st century, which will be the american century. the entire journey of the history of this country has always been in one direction, forward. that is the only direction. ladies and gentlemen, let me close by saying that i have news for governor romney and congressman ryan.

it is never a good bet to bet against the american people. [applause] ladies and gentleman, with you, we can win. we win florida, we win this election. god bless you, god bless you all. may god protect our troops. thank you. [applause] ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

♪ >> vice-president joe biden, wrapping up a campaign event in florida, a state with 29 of electoral votes. we are opening up our phone

lines to get your thoughts on what you want to hear on the final days before the election. what do you want to hear from the candidates? if you are a supporter of mitt romney, the number is -- for supporters of barack obama -- for all others -- be sure that you knew your yourision -- nemute television when you call in. it is possible we will need to break away to take you to comments from chris christie and president obama. we will let you know about that. let's get your phone calls, first, to pittsburgh. supporting president obama, this is kim. what do you want to hear from the closing argument? >> first, if i can quickly

interject something, when you are in court and you lie down stand, when you lie to a judge when you are being interviewed, you are accused of perjury and you go to jail. i am trying to understand -- what is paul ryan and mitt romney going to get for lying to the american people? i have video tape his live interviews and played the back very carefully. he has lied and changed his story over and over and over again. people supporting them will not take the time to actually listen and review what he has said. >> let's hear from our independent line. danny is in modesto, california. you are on the air, tammy. go ahead. >> it is not what i want to hear, it is what i believe about joe biden. he says he is a roman catholic

that is for abortion, which really bothers me. caller: -- host -- >> you are on the other line, who are you voting for? >> mitt romney. i have been watching it every day. i believe that mitt romney is a true american, a catholic. joe biden says he is a catholic, but his for abortion, which is an abomination. >> let's go to an obama supporter in california. >> i just want to hear president obama on the fema conversation that he had, letting it go to states, so that the people that suffered the disaster -- >> tying in to the female

response, the role of the federal government in the hurricane is tied to your vote? >> sorry? >> your tying in the role of the mob? wax on the last days of his campaigning, i understand that mitt romney took us there, to fina. if he cared about the american people, and why as chris christie now depended on the fema, if he is such a supporter of mitt romney, he will depend on the fema for support? >> we will take you there live in a couple of minutes. the plan is to take you to brigantine, new jersey. the scene of major damage to hurricane sandy, the president and chris christie, spending quite some time on a marine one,

going over the worst damaged spots along the shore. we will take you there live when we get the chance as we listen to your thoughts on the closing days of the election. jared, south carolina, you are supporting president obama or mitt romney? south carolina, go ahead. >> i am supporting obama. in 2008 it was obvious to me that the republican national convention did not have the confidence in mitt romney that he could solve the problems we were facing in 2008. i think obama has brought us a long way. i voted for him then, the first democrat i had ever voted for. but i am proud of obama. i love him, he is my president. i will be voting for him this time, because i believe he is leading us the right way. >> vice-president joe biden,

florida, south of gainesville in the center of the state. meanwhile, mitt romney has three florida events later today, one of which we will bring you to live. he has been touring the state with marco rubio and jeb bush. we will have that event tonight, from jacksonville. we are asking you, in the closing days of the election, what do you want to hear from your candidates? we also have some twitter messages. the hashed that we have been using is c-span 2012. the erie, pennsylvania. what do you want to hear from your candidate? stephanie? hello, erie. >> my name is stephanie. i am in support of mitt romney. >> what do you think will seal

the deal with undecided voters? >> i just wanted to say that vice-president biden mentioned on their the fact checkers, i wanted to say that he needs his facts straight. governor mark -- governor romney never said to let the auto industry to bankrupt. i think it is vital that we get them now and get romney in here to straighten things up. first and foremost, i do not believe in killing babies and that seals the deal for me. >> kimberly tweets in comments, that the plans are not sketchy, they are atetch-a-sketchy. joanna, who are you voting for? >> i am still undecided. i would like the current president to explain to me what

happened, i do not feel we have gotten the truth. >> what is the big unanswered question about benghazi that you need to hear? >> he went to the different news stations and was all over the board. one station tells you that he said something about it being a terrorist attack, another says it was not said. i want to know why four men died. >> there are three separate congressional investigations going on. we know that when congress returns they will have a hearing on this, i believe that is scheduled for the 15th of november. denise, mississippi, supporting president obama. go ahead, denise. you are on the air. >> [feedback] >> denise, mississippi? >> [unintelligible] >> denise, you are breaking up on me. call back in and we will try to

get to back on the air. lexington, mississippi, this is a mitt romney supporter. hello. >> the reason i am supporting obama, people say they are christians, and i cannot understand, if they lined up the words, got -- god said that children being aborted is wrong in the eyes of god. it is also wrong in the eyes of god, gays. once we have a president in office that lines up with god's word, it is like the old test of it, we are a force for good. with a president that lines up with god's word. when we have one that does not line up with god's word, everything goes downhill theory >> vice president biden, shaking hands in california. president obama announced today that he would be back on the

campaign trail tomorrow in green bay, wisconsin, and in boulder, colorado. the next call is from jackie. >> responding to the lady that called from california, they -- blaming the vice-president about wanting to have an abortion. she did not listen to what the vice-president said. he is a catholic and he believes in the catholic doctrine. he said that he cannot force's belief on others. that woman called from california to blame him, she needs to listen. >> jackie, making a comment about the comments made by joe biden. of course, you can find more in our video library, c-span.org. one more call from canton, new jersey. doris, how did you fair?

what do you want to hear from the candidates? says you are calling on the obama line. >> we faired well, god has blessed us again. i wanted to say to the lady that just commented on obama not wanting to forces believes on others, he is a devout catholic, he did state that, he indicated he did not want to force his beliefs on others. that is my comment and i support obama. >> doris, thank you for your call. we are hoping to take you live to b jersey. the president has been visiting the jersey atho the damage from hurricane sandy. we will take you there live as we are able in the next couple of minutes. a couple of reactions on twitter, has tagged c-span 2012 -- hashtag cspan2012.

this one, from holly -- i do not want a character in the white house that cannot explain the benghazi. another one here from, like, -- i like joe biden a lot, i really wish that he did not speak in public events wearing sunglasses. a pretty sunny day there in florida. pat is on online, supporting mitt romney. where are you calling from? >> cincinnati. >> i am supporting mitt romney and i am confused with obama supporters more than anything. why is the tagline looking forward? nazis, mao tse tung? what are we looking forward to? we are losing our identity as a nation.

time to change so we have done and make it right again. >> i think we lost to there, pat. just a reminder, we will be covering the governor of the state, crisscrossing the state today, encouraging early voting. let's get one more call here. kathleen is supporting president obama. what town in michigan? [unintelligible] >> >> thank you -- a [unintelligible] >> >> thank you for -- >> [unintelligible] >> thank you for calling. go ahead. >> i believe that obama is doing the best he can deal with. without manufacturing of cars, there would be no jobs left at all in michigan. people are not giving him a fair shake. once romney gets in there, i seriously believe -- the only thing i am worried about is

obama care. i have a son that is mentally ill and cannot get medicaid. because he cannot get on his magic -- his medication, we are having an awful time. that is the only part of obama i am worried about. >> warren is on the independent line. warren, a carbondale. what do you want to hear from the candidates in these closing days -- closing days? >> my name isbasically i want te they going to help people with disabilities? i supported obama four years ago. i wonder, nobody is talking about that. i do not expect iran need to because we are included in the 47%. >> are you on disability? >> yes. >> what you have heard of the two major candidates, obama and

mitt romney, who is going to do better for someone in your situation? >> i would like to think obama would. you do not hear anything. >> thank you for my call -- or call. you can continue the conversation on twitter. to're hoping to take you live new jersey, just north of atlantic city. president obama has been touring the state this afternoon with chris christie. we will take you there as we are able this afternoon on c-span or the c-span network. we will take you to a briefing that happened not all that long ago with the janet napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, and the transportation secretary. this is a conference call it happened midafternoon. >> good afternoon, everyone.

we are pleased to have janet napolitano. and doctor rick nabb and charlie. we also have a representative from the coast guard. with that, let me turn it over to some opening remarks. >> good afternoon. what we will do with start with the doctor so everybody gets the forecast on the weather and that i will give an overview of response efforts today. that will turn it over to secretary lahood. >> thank you, madame secretary. this is a large and sprawling weather system but it is substantially weaker overall than it had been yesterday. certainly compared to monday and monday night.

it is still producing some pockets of heavy rain indiana area, all the way over to new england, new hampshire, and in between some of the mountainous areas. west virginia there is some snow going on. all that will be tapering off by tomorrow, for the most part. a couple of vincible -- inches are possible. winter storm warnings there. more than two feet of snow. totals could be around a foot of rain. there are still some places, mainly in maryland, one or two in ohio where there are some elevated reverse that are at or near a flood stage.

fbut after today those will be on the decline and the weather system will continue on into canada. the coastal flooding is really just a couple feet above normal tide levels on the on shore flow that is persisting today. but for the most part the most poet tent part of this system is over and things will be improving by tomorrow. that's all i have. >> thank you and as he said this has been one of the largest and most serious storms ever to affect the united states with very broad and significant impacts in a number of areas. president obama came down to fema this morning to the national resource coordination center along with several members of the cabinet, myself, secretaries, as well as other senior officials. his message to us was clear and consistent with his message over the past few days, get resources where they are needed

as fast as possible without excuses or delays. and that's what we are committed to doing. everyone is leaning forward to support the states, communities and tribes in their response. we've engaged the entire emergency management apparatus of the entire country. that also includes the private sector, the faith based community and many many volunteers. so i'd like to thank all of these partners for their hard work over the last few days. but rest assured, we are not resting. we are committed to working round the clock to get it done. yesterday the president declared major disasters for connecticut new york and new jersey which makes help available to those in those areas. the designated counties in those states can begin applying

for assistance by registering online at www.disasterassistance.gov or calling 1800621-3362. the president has added new hampshire, virginia and west virginia to the list of states that already have emergency declarations and that allows fema to provide resources to those states and localities engaged in life sustaining activities. in terms of rescue operations nine search and rescue teams continue to support state and local efforts. a come bind 700 rescues have been performed since yesterday. the army corpse of engineers

are actively engaging with states and the power companies and we know that is a key challenge in many of the areas affected by sandy. as a temporary measure, the government has created a support base to serve as the staging area for the distribution of generators and assess energy requirements for public facilities in the impacted states and areas. in other words, through that support base, we are able to consolidate where the generators are going and to priority ties where the generators are going so they go to the places of greatest need. we continue to support shelter operations in partnership with the red cross and other organizations. as of yesterday more than 258 shelters were open across 16 states supporting over 11,000

residents. fema is supporting the provision of meals, water and other critical supplies to the affected states. in all, we have more than 2200 personnel positioned along the east coast and the national guard has deployed more than 7400 forces on duty to support response and recovery. we understand that people are anxious to return home. we also know however that given the scope of the damage, it's going to take some time to get power back on, roads cleared, transportation systems up and running again. there are still many hazards out there including downed power lines, unpassable roads and bridges and traffic lights not yet working. so we don't want people in harm's way.

we continue to advise people to pay attention to their local officials who can tell them when an evacuated area is now safe to return to. so we're asking everyone to be patient as we work with all speed we can to receive guidance from local officials and to work to restore the basic necessities of life in the area affected by this storm. we'll continue to provide regular updates on our progress. i want to thank you and i'm going to turn it back over. >> i'm going to turn it over to secretary of transportation. >> thank you very much. the president has directed us to immediately do all we can to support our state and local partners as they work to restore vital transportation infrastructure. following this dangerous storm. and that is exactly what we're doing. yesterday, less than 24 hours after sandy made land fall, as a part of the extensive federal effort being coordinated by fema, d.o.t. issued $13 million dollars in fund immediately available, $10 million to new

york and $3 million to rhode island. the $13 million is our first installment of funds to states in the affected areas to help begin repairing damage to roads, highways, sea walls, bridges. we expect other states to apply for emergency relief funding in the coming days and we will immediately address these requests as they come in. restoring critical infrastructure is essential to enabling states and relief workers to assess impacted communities. these are repairs that are immediately necessary so that residents can begin to resume daily activities. the funding answers the president's call for agencies to act quickly, to help the affected states.

but it's not all we are doing to help with d.o.t. we are doing all we can to get transit service up and running and that is a top priority in the affected states and cities. the federal transit administration is coordinating efforts to try and get equipment like buses and rail cars in the impacted areas so service can resume as quickly as possible. our federal motor carrier safety administration has issued emergency notice that temporary lifts certain requirements and regulations to make it easier for trucks to provide emergency relief and supplies. these are just some of the actions we're taking and it's just the beginning. all of us at d.o.t. are committed and ready to help

restore transportation in the affected states. back to you. >> thank you sir. now let me turn it over to the senior vice president for disaster services at the red cross. >> thank you. good afternoon. as the secretaries have already indicated, this is a very large and extensive storm. the red cross is operational in 16 states, an area as large as europe. it was already pointed out on the extensive sheltering operations taking place across those states. the red cross has activated more than 200 vehicles to distribute meals, waters and snacks in key areas. we've mobilized more than 2300 of our volunteers and disaster workers.

we will be mobilizing and moving thousands more from across the country. we're working hard to get help where help is needed but secretary indicated still access is a bit of an issue in some places. we are pushing heavily more resources. we're active in every one of the states and we're active in fema's national response coordination center and will thrilled to be working alongside the strong leadership at fema. this response is very large and very costly. many of our red cross blood drives have been cancelled due to the storm. more cancellations are expected but we could see as much as 10,500 blood and platelet products. publice encouraging the to make a blood donation. i want to remind people about our hurricane app that can be downloaded.

it includes an i'm safe feature with the push of one button people can indicate through facebook they're safe and let their loved ones know they're all safe. this is going to be a costly operation for the american red cross and we can't do it without the contributions of the american public. we want to encourage folks to visit redcross.org to make a doe inflammation or text the word red cross to make a $10 contribution. these gifts are the only way we can provide the food, shelter and assistance when people are impacted by disasters. i'll throw it back to you. >> we'll go into question and answer section. we have sabt 15 minutes left in this conference call. please limit yourself to one

question, no follow ups. >> if you'd like to ask a question press star one. i'll introduce you. our first question comes from bloomberg news. >> secretary, the $3.6 billion in the disaster relief fund is enough for the storm. are you concerned that a lot of that money will be used up for this storm and you wouldn't have enough for the rest of the fiscal year? >> yeah, the disaster relief fund is funded. we've got the resources we need right now. we do not anticipate that it's going to be a limitation at all on the response.

>> we're going to take you to new jersey near the marina where president obama has arrived. he has just gotten out of a vehicle and we expect to hear comments from the president and chris christie in that picture, we should hear from him, too. >> we're going to take you to new jersey near the marina where president obama has arrived. he has just gotten out of a vehicle and we expect to hear comments from the president and chris christie in that picture, we should hear from him, too.

a live look at brigantine, new jersey. we expect to hear comments from the both of them. they spent an hour or more in a helicopter tour of new jersey, the jersey shore particular.

"polo done with helicopter survey of new jersey -- president obama at dung with helicopter survey of new jersey." the associated press says he is telling residents we are going to be here for the long haul. they inspected the neighborhoods and streets covered with sand. they have been meeting at a community center here in brigantine. we're expecting comments from the president shortly.

president obama and governor chris christie touring some of the damage in brigantine, new jersey. across the hudson in new york city, the city is opening up somewhat. some tunnels and bridges are opening and some cars are being allowed back into the city. a big event is on, the new york marathon, the mayor declaring the marathon is scheduled to take place on sunday. he made that announcement at a

news conference this afternoon according to a report from the wall street journal.

live from nearby the brigantine marina, president obama and the governor chris christie wrapping up a tour of the state and in particular a tour of the barrier island of brigantine. of course the governor was the keynote speaker at the republican convention in tampa up. he says governor christie is doing what he needs to be doing as governor and president obama is doing what he needs to be doing. the new york subway and commuter trains will resume limited service.

we are expecting to hear comments from president obama and governor christie and also in the group is the new jersey congressman.

we are from brigantine, new jersey. they have been touring the state meeting with residents and they have been joined by pie part of the congressional delegation, the two senators. and also a representative of this district. the congressman from

pennsylvania has it -- is going to introduce legislation that will provide $12 billion in emergency assistance with no budget off at -- offsets. he will introduce that this friday. in terms of fema money, transportation is providing $13 million to a couple of states, a new york and rhode island. they were the first to ask for assistance.

>> good afternoon, everybody. i want to thank the members that are here. i want to thank the president. we spent a significant afternoon together. surveying the damage up and down the coast line.

we wanted to show the president that personally. we have the opportunity to discuss it. and over to the shelter and meet with folks and have them see the president and his concern all of us have for making sure that things get back to normal as quickly as possible. we have a lot of challenges. things we need to do to make sure we get power restored as quickly as possible, that people have clean water, hospitals are taking care of things they need to when we get kids back to school. i discussed all those issues with the president and i am pleased to report he has sprung into action immediately to give us those things while we were in a car together. i want to thank him for that. he has worked with me since before the storm. this is our sixth conversation since the weekend. it has been a great working

relationship to make sure we are doing the job people asked us to do. i cannot think him enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state and the people of our state. i was able to witness it personally. we are doing what we need to do coordinating with fema. i want to thank mr. fugate. we will move on from here. what i said yesterday i really mean. there is going to be soro, you see that. the president has seen that today. that is appropriate. we have suffered from loss. we have not suffered that much a loss of life and we thank god for that. this is the worst storm i have seen in my lifetime in the state

but we cannot permit that sorrow to replace the resilience we have. we will get up and we will get this thing rebuilt and we'll get things back together because that is what the state is all about. for all of you whobut we cannotd i met a of you today who disregarded my admonition come at to get the hell out of here, you are forgiven this time. but not for much longer. when all of you look around and you see the destruction, all that stuff can be replaced. you look to your right and left, to your husband, your wife, those are the things that cannot be replaced. i am glad we do not have that kind of loss of life. thank you for bringing -- being here today. it is my honor to introduce you to the president of the united states. >> thank you, everybody. let me make sure i acknowledge the folks who are here because they have played an important role in this. first of all, bunch your congrel

delegation, senator bob menendez, congressman frank, atlantic county executive dennis levenson, and the brigantine mayor. obviously this is a federal, state, and local efforts. the first thing i want to do is thank everybody who has been involved in the rescue and recovery process. at the top of my list, i have to say governor christie, throughout the process, has been responsive, he has been aggressive in making sure the state got out in front of this incredible storm and i think the people of new jersey recognize he has put his heart and soul in making sure the people of new jersey bounce back even stronger than before. i want to thank him for his leadership and partnership.

i want to thank the congressional delegation because part of the reason we are able to respond quickly is because they help make sure fema financing was in place. we are appreciative of those efforts. i want to thank craig fugate. sometimes people think fema, not the people behind it but craig lives and breathes this stuff, may shrink -- making sure we're providing help. i want to thank all of the personal responders who have been involved in this process, the firefighters, the folks who are in here shuttling out people who were supposed to get the hell out and did not. you have helped save a lot of lives and property. one thing you learn in these tragedies is the first responders, i keep in all -- keep in mind in their homes are

under water and yet they make those personal sacrifices to help other people. we appreciate that. i'm going to make a couple of comments. number one, our hearts go out to the families who have lost loved ones. it is true that because of preparation, the loss of life was kept lower than it might have been. for those individual families, obviously their world has been torn apart. we need to make sure that everybody who has lost a loved one knows they are in our thoughts and prayers. four of those like the people i had a chance to meet throughout new jersey and the region, whose lives have been up ended, my second message is, we are here for you. we will not forget, we will make

sure you get all the help you need until you have rebuilt. at this point, our focus is on the states of the new jersey, which got hit harder than anybody. the state of new york, particularly lower manhattan. we are concerned about connecticut as well and we are still monitoring west virginia where there are heavy snows in inaccessible areas. for the most part, those four states are bearing the brunt of this incredible storm. what we have been able to do is stage commodities, water, power generators, ambulances in some cases, food, medical supplies, emergency supplies, and we have over 2000 fema personnel on the

ground right now. their job, now that we are moving out of search and rescue is make sure they are talking to individual communities so people know exactly how they can get the help they need. we expedited our emergency declarations for the state of new jersey and local counties that have been affected. that means the people can immediately start registering for emergency assistance. one of the things i want to emphasize to the people of new jersey and the region, now that you are safe, your family is

safe, you are trying to figure out where you're going to stay, it is important you know there is help available to you right now. for example, to find rental housing or pay for groceries. we saw a young woman who had a newborn, probably in eight-month old that needs diapers and formula. or pay for groceries. we saw a young woman who had a newborn, probably in eight-month old that needs diapers and formula. those are the kind of supplies and help we can provide. if you call 800- safe, your fams safe, you are trying to figure 621-fema, or disasterasistance.gov, if you have access to the internet, you can register right now so that you can immediately start receiving help. we want to make sure everything you need. a couple of final point, obviously our biggest priority is getting power turned back on. we are pleased new woark got power. there are still in chunks of the community, including this community right here, that do not have power. it is hard enough cleaning up debris and dealing with boats that have been appended and

roads that are blocked. when people do not have power, they are disabled in all sorts of ways and it is hard to get back to normal. yesterday i had a chance to speak to the ceos of the utilities from all across the country. a lot of the states that were spare, that were not hard hit, or some as far away as california, they have pledged to start getting equipment, cruise, etc. come into new jersey -- crews, etc., into new jersey. we were able to get c-17's, military transport planes potentially to move assets, personnel, to speed up the process of getting power up and running as soon as possible. our first priority is water

filtration plants and some other critical infrastructure. for that, we have emergency generators. we have a navy ship that has helicopters that can move assets around the state as well. we are going to be working with local officials to identify those critical infrastructure and how we can get what is needed as quickly as possible. a couple of other things we are concerned about, as power starts coming back on, we want to make sure people can also get to work. a lot folks in jersey work in new york come in the city, and in other places where transportation may be hobbled. one of the things i mentioned is the possibility of us using federal assets, and military assets as well as taking inventory of the country that can be brought in so we can help

people get to their work. governor christie also mentioned the importance of schools. the sooner we can get them back into school, the sooner they are in a routine, that helps the families. we are going to have a lot of work to do. i do not want anybody to feel that somehow this is going to be cleaned up over night. we want to make sure people have realistic expectations. what i can promise is the federal government will be working as closely as possible with the state and local officials and we will not quit until this is done. the directive by have given, i will repeat, i think craig and others know i mean it, we are not going to tolerate the statel red tape, bureaucracy. i instituted a 15 minute rule. you return everybody's phone calls in 15 minutes, whether it is the mayor, county officials,

if they need something, we figure out a way to say yes. as i was gathering around, i had a chance to talk sellout -- to some of the young people who had been volunteering cleaning up debris. when we're at the community center, there was a restaurant owner who had been cooking meals, as his contribution to the recovery process. some of the folks were saying the food was better than what they got at home. you had a 15-year-old young man whose mother was disabled and he was making sure she was ok and taking on extraordinary responsibilities for herself but also for his mom.

when you see folks like that to respond with strength and resilience, when you see neighbors helping neighbors, you are reminded about what america is all about. we go through tough times but we bounced back. the reason is because we look out for one another. we do not leave anybody behind. my commitment to the people on this block, the people in this community, and the people of this stage, is that same spirit will carry over until our work is done. thank you very much, everybody. sure[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

>> president obama and chris christie wrapping up their comments in brigantine. the president has suspended his campaign. he is back on the trail tomorrow when wisconsin, nev., and colorado. i wrote to the white house coverage coming up this afternoon on c-span -- our road to the white house coverage

coming out tthis afternoon on c-span. we will be at their stock in ohio in the southwest part of the state. mitt romney, three stops in florida. a state with 29 electoral votes. he has been touring with the jeb bush and marco rubio. c-span, six days from the election, it continues to bring you the latest debate from across the nation. his republican challenger in a debate hosted by the university of delaware and delaware first media. this is one hour. >> well, on behalf of delaware first media, and the university of delaware center for political communication, welcome to delaware debates 2012.

made possible with the financial support of aarp delaware and the american cancer society. i am joined this evening by the professor of political science david wilson. including the incumbent jack markell and the incumbent jeff craig. david and i will put questions to each of you. you will have one minute and 30 seconds to respond followed by a one minute rebuttal and then we will have a discussion among the four of us. then we will turn to students for their questions. responses are the minted to one minute. and it will also have a one

minute closing statement. our audience here on the university of delaware's campus understands there will be no applause during the debate. a coin toss determine our order for this evening. with that, we begin account jack markell. >> four years ago, they put their faith in me during a difficult time. the stock market was collapsing. the economy was in free fall. delaware was losing 15,000 jobs a year. major employers were shutting their doors laying off workers and they were moving out of state. we face the biggest budget shortfall in our history. i have been proud about how we have pulled together. we've shown we are neighbors.

working together, we have been a reopening plants. we are putting people back to work. we are making delaware hmos -- choice location. we are moving forward in delaware. there is more to do. that is why i am asking the people of delaware for their confidence and their vote. >> now your opening statement. >> this election is about to jobs and the economy. delaware has 30,000 unemployed individuals, that is the population of delaware and 3000 individuals. for the people at the university, it is capacity plus 3000 people. it is an unacceptable number. we have not recovered from the downturn at the beginning of jack's administration. we have a shocking number of people on food stamps.

87,000, 11% of the population. today, 152,000, a 17% of the population. we have made some progress but not enough. this election and our debate is about different visions for how to move forward. i am interested in moving forward in getting going. >> our first question will be opposed to jack markell. delaware built its foundation on the money industry and now it is obvious the state was too dependent upon banks. as i read a list of the companies that are helping delaware rebuild, barclays, cd group, amazon.com and they have made a commitment but it sounds like the state is in the middle of a rebound on paper. but the numbers are not adding up and unemployment figures are not trading. or is this a bullish message coming from? is a reality or spin? >> of course it is reality.

87,000, 11% ofthe unemployment e better than the national average. at the same time, we recognize it is 6.9%. there are 30,000 people who want to be working and who are not and we will be focused on putting them back to work. j.p. morgan chase is adding 1200 jobs. amazon is building a million square foot distribution facility. they will be put in 1000 people to work. there will be a new factory a mile from here, where they will be employing hundreds. the refinery was closed and has reopened. it is the only refinery that had closed and is now reopened. bank of america is banks 3000 people off but adding 500 jobs in delaware. capital one, they are adding 500 jobs. jobs.